temnix

I am leaving this place. Finally! The links to my mods, to their downloads and discussion threads, such as there have been, on these forums, can be found at my new account on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/temnixmods

I don't expect to do any more modding, but if I do, the material will appear there. The page lists all of my stuff mostly so that it is visible to those who look for it or come across it. You can express your appreciation there in multiples of $5, if you like. I'm not going to visit my account here nor read messages, but I did update the profile page with links to some mods that could not be found before for one reason or another. "The 1000" and "Initiative" are two of my mods that existed on Spellhold, not here.

With this mod area traps that are detectable and, when triggered, give the message "Trap Sprung," will respond to the passage of NPC, summoned minions and enemies, so that it is possible to use them for tactics. (Civilian casualties are also possible, if they wander around; caveat emptor.) Some monsters naturally roam, and they may end up killing themselves somewhere in another part of the map - one of the inconveniences of living in a dungeon, but, being natives, enemies and neutrals set off the trap only half of the time. On a tails toss they simply discharge it without anything else happening. If the trap resets, the party may try to lead them across again and hope they will blunder this time. Normally deaths from traps count as neutrals sorting each other out and don't give the party any experience or cause it to lose reputation, but I made it so that a generous amount of experience is given for leading someone or something into a trap to his accidental death, though only for the immediate triggerer, not for the others who may be blown by away by the same fireball. A trap has only been sprung if the message appears. If someone strides across without, he has been lucky, as sometimes happens, because the engine does not reliably catch up with those moving across regions. The trap is still primed and waiting. 

Most traps in the games are single-shot, but some do reset, and for this a rewinding begins as soon as any of them is triggered. A sound will be heard. The rewinding continues for a round, during which time the party or others can hope to cross. All of the resetting traps in an area are connected and part of the same grand mechanical system. They share the downtime interval, and the party can try to dash past a trap of this sort ahead by triggering one behind or sail past on a jingle bequeathed by some poor sonovabitch off screen. Triggering a minor resetting trap in the rear may let a scout sally ahead to monsters over a more dangerous tile ahead and draw them across, so it may be smarter not to disarm every trap right away.

To make floor traps more respectable and more deserving these alternative methods, the trap detection difficulty has been upped by 40% and the disarming difficulty by 20%. I suggest using Find Traps more often and going slowly, if sapper-pioneers are not available.

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Most probably, Beamdog hasn't done anything to traps. A trap's ability to respond to creatures other than party members depends on the flags "Triggered by NPC" and "Triggered by enemies." Many traps in BGEE have the NPC flag set, and there you will be able to use summoned minions to set them off. In Durlag's tower, for instance. You probably don't remember which ones you were able to set off before. This topic gives me an idea for a mod.

The question is, is the mod so safe because it does so little? This concern can very well lead to an Utterly Inoffensive Mods list. Who is going to do a Heroic Mods list opposite it, I wonder?

For the sake of arguing: you can also add notes with spells. Deleting them with effects... I don't think I've been able to do that. What may be a little more worth recalling, since I made you look, is that it is possible to use tokens in the text of notes, and they will retain their content after reloading. I once had a time-traveling spell that pushed the party back in the calendar by a day, and it left behind a reminder sign with a corresponding note reading "Day Six" - the content of the <GAMEDAY> token at the time of departure. Names of creatures, characters and so on are also retained, once they are fixed inside the notes, but, unfortunately, the main character has no name string, so you can't immure his name somewhere without running OnCreation-type actions that fill the token every time he enters the area etc. Still, this is nice, if you want to erect map notes with epitaphs like "Branwen died here" or "Minsc scored a critical here."

You don't need scripts to add notes. There is a Weidu function for that, only not for deleting them. And, as I found out, in BGEE it is not necessary to feed fj_are_structure either coordinates or the text reference. The deletion works without, just by targeting the number of the structure, from note 0 onwards, but it is unreliable. In the area I had to edit there was a bunch of notes, and no matter what I tried, what numbers I repeated the function for, I could not get rid of one. It stayed there. But, being the last one, it was structure 0, so I was able to copy the ARE a second time and then run the delete again precisely for note 0, and only afterwards did I use ADD_MAP_NOTE for my replacement notes to go in the same places. I had to enter the coordinates manually. What would be good to have is a function that combined deletion with editing, with something like delete = 1 for when you want the note gone and new values for the rest when you want it changed.

I am being SO constructive. What a turnaround. 

Programmers on these boards can turn their attention to these applications.

First, some Weidu function for deleting automap notes would fill a real gap. There is one for adding them, but deleting them has to be done via fj_are_structure, and it requires for every note the exact x and y coordinates, to be looked up among a stack of similar numbers, and the text reference - I hope the content of the string and not its number! Getting rid of a handful of notes on a map is proving an unexpected big hassle.

Second, there is a call for a tool to make Infinity Engine music tracks. it is time-consuming and dull to make them by hand. For music the engine plays lists of consecutive ACM files, which are actually OGG files, only with a different extension. They are short, a few seconds long, and to each corresponds a fade-out track from the next portion of the tune for when music is interrupted, usually by the switch to or out of combat. In my experience, 3-second long mainline cuts followed by 1.5 second-long interrupts work the best, but it is not fun to split a long OGG file this way manually. The MUS playlist files that control the sequence of play are simple enough to produce. When I cut up tunes, I name mainline tracks with numbers and their interrupts get a minus on the end: 1.OGG and 1-.OGG, and so on for all of them. Later I rename them and change the extension, and it's easy to pair off mainline tracks with their interrupts. But the cutting itself should be automated. A program could split up tunes in segments of preferred length, add tune prefix and modder prefix (or suffix) and take care of conversions.

Great! Thanks. I thought I was going to have to revert to invisible minions with affixed VVCs to make my area changes. There is something about Near Infinity that prevents extraction of graphics from the bigger areas on weaker machines or on 32-bit machines. Most likely a problem with memory shortage. argent has offered a tweak, but it's ineffective. My other computer is a 64-bit system, though, and not so old, and it still won't show previews or extract them. But now the winter of my discontent is made glorious summer.

And don't write anything else here or in the ADN thread, unless you have a question or a problem. I don't want my threads getting cluttered and confusing for people who just want the mods. This isn't a 26 page-long tweak topic case.

By fans you mean yourself and Morgoth?  Well, all of my mods are compatible with EET, as far back as the first or second year's, maybe. It only matters with respect to string references and area names, anyway.

Well, I have never tried to use scripts to change morale. It is interesting, in principle, although I don't know where I would put those checks and changes in a working script and what results I could hope for except the same failure I can already produce by moving the breaking point with a spell. The changes to the Morale stat with scripts may be doing something different from shifting the breaking point, but nothing easily usable is peeking out of this, is it? And you do understand that the opcode change reduces morale with positive values, right? It bumps up the breaking point until it synchs with current morale, and then a failure of one of those three types (panic, fleeing, berserk) happens. Positive values bring cowardice, in other words, and the opcode works, so unless script morale can do something different, an effect-based change - over time, if you prefer - gets the job done. Ending it - well, that's a different story.

I have made a spell like this, Poltroonery, for bringing up targets' breaking point by 2. That doesn't normally lead to panic and so on, but it was supposed to make a stampede more likely when morale would be checked after damage, seeing many nearby allies killed and what else may cause those breaks. I never got around to testing how useful it really was, though, which would be tricky anyway. Breaking point-fudging might work well against enemies like Tazok: his saving throws are all at 1 and morale also at 1, but saves you can't do anything about without Greater Malison. His morale total is still 18, but with a few shots of this medicine... even a golem would break and run.  Also even the main character will experience the triple bouquet if his point is moved far enough, despite being excluded from routine morale failure.

Go ahead, though, and look in the script function. Maybe you'll find something different there.

Nope. Was that said here somewhere? I glanced down the discussion and the minion drop method was not mentioned for anything. Instead the talk veered off to realms remote and awkward. In my opinion, Salk should curve his expectations a little and either give the crucial item in another way than throwing it on the ground or accept that it might not be found. This engine has limitations, to say the least.

"Animate Dead Now" is compatible with EET. It is about making zombies and things like that. Screenshots are on page 1, the latest download link is on page 5.

https://www.gibberlings3.net/forums/topic/31353-animate-dead-now-mod-for-ee

I'm having trouble extracting the PNG images of AR4900.TIS and its nighttime version, AR4900N. It's the Nashkel fair. I'll give credit, if someone can get those for me.

Because.

Something that I want to mention about sounds in this mod: zombies receive new and different voices after the transformation. These voices may clash with the sounds embedded in the INI files of their animations. This won't happen with the playable races and classes, but, long story short, monsters have default sounds that come with their animations. This was a crappy decision by Bioware, but then, they did not expect creature sounds to be changed in the course of gameplay. Thus, a wolf animated here is going to have two sets of voices: the new undead animal rattles and his old perky vociferations. It is the same for hobgoblins, xvarts and others. This can get quite jarring, and the only way to prevent this is to clean out the INI files: open them in Near Infinity and delete sound references except for idle sounds (wing flapping for wyverns, creaks for skeletons...) and body falls. This is a good idea, but doing it for every monster type is more work than I can be bothered with, and there is an additional problem: in BG2 monsters ONLY have the default sounds. Bioware has been very lazy in the sequel and simply did not assign ghouls, kobolds, animals and so on individual sounds. And I don't know how it is in Icewind Dale. A dedicated and flat-bottomed modder could clean the INIs, then go through all of the CRE files and assign the right strings to the slots for every creature type, taking stock of the exceptional NPC with unique lines. That would solve the problem once and for all, and not just for this mod. Short of that, clean your own INIs or put up with the audio confusion.

To Salk: forget containers. What you need is an invisible minion - a creature without an animation or foot circle and a script that says

DropInventory()
DestroySelf()

Then spawn it through the area script or whatever other script you use.

I upgraded the amount of experience necromancers and shamans earn by staying among the dead. I would have included the change in the original file, but this was a very old table from when my ideas of balance weren't the best. Now it is a little more rewarding. This is going to be the last change, unless bugs are reported.

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You misunderstand my reasons. I didn't start making all this to get a following but to show people a few doors so they could know they were not locked in a dungeon. "Companions the creative one seeks and not corpses, nor herds and believers. Fellow creators the creative one seeks, who will write new values on new tablets." That never came about, but I learned quite a lot.

Your family's? Well, I hope there is no download link here for this buried mod. It was too big for one maker to complete. The revisions for Ust Natha had to be junked, and the parts about the shadow dragon and the silver dragon and her armor made it into two separate mods.

54 minutes ago, Guest Morgoth said:

In the past I wanted to ask you about writing an artifact mod for Evil Charnames. I'm pretty sure that someone out there would get in touch with Charname, either to sell new parts of Khazgaroth or to give him a few artifacts that would get in tune with his own essence. And maybe to unlock their potential he had to do something evil.;)

That makes some sense. Kazgaroth was a proxy of Bhaal, that is the most sensible way of thinking about him. And he was resurrected from death by the power of his heart in the third "Moonshaes" book. They drove it into a petrified druid, who was corrupted and transformed.

Evilness isn't the point. That's just a label. But if someone makes a quest or a mechanic where a devil wants innocents sacrificed, that, in any case, reminds people that there are other worlds out there with such intentions - or different. By driving a few wedges into into the flow of task-reward-task games are kept from turning into streaming show soma.

Shit. I still can't edit older posts. Get the update here.

Download, updated

This is the working link now.

As if by magic, I suddenly acquired the ability to edit my posts, so I'm updating the download link in the previous ad - I made a small update - and copying over the contents to the head post.

Nonetheless, nobody should think of asking me to revive or create anything else for these boards. I'm working on the last mod, and that will be all.

It is compatible.

Fine! I finished this one. I made a version that actually installs, for starters, and has the whole basic mechanism straightened out. I was still working from an early iteration, the only one left, so there is none of that extra stuff for BG2 I've mentioned here before, but the main Animate Dead spells are in, the zombies will cross between areas, and there are a few other elements rounding this out. But don't continue asking for more to be done here, unless some errors turn up in the existing files. This mod is compact and gets the job done.

I would update the head post with the information, but it has become inconvenient, so here are the bullet points. An Enhanced Edition is required.

• Necromancers and shamans can gain experience from the souls of the dead. The more corpses around, the more points trickle in. Sometimes they make a breakthrough. Non-good ones can also wrestle with the spirits and bind them to keep watch over the area. The hands must be free for this (switch to the fist).
• Corpses putrefy and eventually rot away. Scavengers may pop up at old battlefields.
• The clouds of stink over the bodies are pregnant with diseases. They are different and dangerous: drain statistics, experience, cause paralysis. One of the bouquet is tetanus, which may also be picked up from all weapon hits, especially from arrows, bolts and bullets, which in these times are rolled in mud and dung to infect wounds. This goes for the party's weapons too, but enemies probably won't survive long enough to concern themselves. Animals and animal-like monsters (wyverns, ankhegs, spiders, ettercaps etc., also gibberlings) not only have filthy claws but sometimes carry rabies. This is rare but insidious, because there is no message about the infection and symptoms only appear after some time, and afterwards the character quickly becomes difficult to control and dies. Against all these Cure Disease helps. Scrolls of it are sold at all temples and should be carried at all times. They are usable by anyone. If Cure Disease is not available, rabies may be cured before symptoms develop by an application of any fire or acid-based damage source to the character (50% chance per hit). There is no confirmation that the rabies has been cured or that the character was infected to begin with. This is only a precaution after encounters with wildlife.
• All paladins enjoy perfect health and never get sick, which is according to the Player's Handbook. Noble paladins can cast Cure Disease once a day, blackguards - Contagion.
• There is a new piece of ghoulish equipment at the Valley of Tombs in BG1.
• Aec'Letec now drops a mighty but risky necromantic spell. The player may decide for himself whether this promise is worth fighting him for. A scroll with the spell can also be gotten from the body of Vaxall the beholder at the Twisted Rune in BG2.
• Gift of Life is a 5th-level cleric spell similar to Raise Dead, but works on creatures in and out of the party. It is not targeted. Cast it, and one friendly or neutral creature, usually the nearest, will arise. Sometimes two come back. Scrolls of both spells are sold at temples, but they are usable only by priests. NPC found dead in various places can be brought back, if the party wants to use up the expensive scrolls. Horses, dead sons of Dukes can all be brought back. These dead creatures have been thrown down by Bioware only as stage props, however. They don't always have sensible names or dialogues, or any at all, when raised. If they happen to be hostile, they will not rise at all. This mod applies a basic patch to them, taking them from the dead state and setting their hit points to zero - necessary for the resurrection to work, and gives humanoids a script which will cause them to leave the area at once, thanking the party with a reputation point if good-aligned (line 291 in the tp2). Other modders can use this as a base to make exceptions for special NPC with quests or introduce companions this way instead of keeping them petrified somewhere, which is old hat. In this mod there is only one specially treated dead NPC - emissary Tar, murdered by the Iron Throners upstairs in the tower.
• The old version of Animate Dead is now a summoning spell that brings a skeleton from Hades. Priests get it for free, wizards can buy it on scrolls in a few stores.
• Undead are no longer immune to stoning. They were not in BG2 already, but in BG1 there was a holdover that made it possible to conquer maps full of basilisks with a few skeletons or Korax the ghoul.
• The Animate Dead spells bring nearby corpses up to serve the caster as zombies, as many Hit Dice or levels per casting as he has levels himself. Creatures with up to 25 Hit Dice/levels can be animated. A humanoid zombie is always a 2 HD minion, no matter how many levels he had before. Davaeorn, for example, is beyond the level cap for the first BG and so can't be animated, but if he could, he would only have 2 HD. Animals and monsters have their old hit points. Stats are reduced all around, AC is 8, zombies make only one slow attack in a round - punching for humanoids. Others have their fangs and claws with abilities like poison or paralyzation, but no breath weapons, spells, resistances and no combat scripts. Zombies don't act on their own, even to eat up the living. They do get the typical undead resistances. They are very slow and stupid walkers and overall good for nothing but cannon fodder. But if destroyed, they are reusable with another application of Animate Dead, unless they have been subjected to complete dismemberment or took heavy damage from fire, electricity, crushing floors etc.

• Zombies here are not technically undead. Some kind of ineradicable glitch prevents them from being raised again, if their general type has been changed. This should not make much difference in practice.
• There is no limit to the number of zombies, and they will follow the party between areas, even when that is not desired. Most lawmen and guards will sound the general alarm, if they see any "friendly" wandering zombies or skeletons (or summoned fiends). Zombies should be kept well on the outskirts or beaten down to be raised again later. The only civilized area excepted from this is the Nashkel carnival. There are no guards there yet, but should there be, they will ignore all these spectacles. The place is weird enough.
• It is possible to animate bodies that are already decaying. Their statistics are even worse, but they carry the cloud of miasma with them. Animation stops decay: destroyed zombies will not rot away and disappear.
• In the absence of fresh bodies a cleric spell, Nigromancy, can let a priest divine the location of a few to dig up in most places.
• Companions can be turned into zombies, if they excluded from the party before being killed. Animation makes resurrection impossible.

• Xzar has an ability called Reckoning. It can only be used at night or indoors. It works like Animate Dead, but his zombies get +1 to damage and become bound to him. They will no longer respond to Animate Dead after Reckoning. When two casters are animating side by side, Reckoning takes precedence. Only creatures with 6 Hit Dice/levels or fewer can be animated with this power.
• Using any of the animating powers often will grind away at the party's reputation.
• In BG1 Ajantis has a problem with the party's desecration of the dead. It is possible to coax a grace period out of him, but he will rebel against this before long.
• The computer can't be expected to use this version of Animate Dead intelligently, so instead enemy casters will bring up a few premade zombies in the vicinity. These zombies ARE undead and can be turned.

See the head post for screen shots.

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