temnix

I'm working on an update for my items mod, and I want to accommodate "classic" systems (SoA-Tutu time) as much as possible. The more I look into the mechanics, though, the more places I see where something may go wrong and cause a crash because an effect I'm used to relying on freely doesn't exist in those old game iterations. I cut corners, I make more primitive versions of the mechanics, and still in the end I'll have to add a disclaimer that on old systems the mod may fail in unexpected places. The most sorely missed feature in "classic" is all-around effect removal, but blocking effects of items is important for this mod too. Booze is one of the items where I need it. I want to keep characters from racking up bonuses from drinking, but they should be able to rack up intoxication and side effects. Somewhere in the effects stack, then, I need a lid over the desirable effects below it. This is easy for the version of the item that will be installed on EEs, I simply put a 318 there. But with "classic" I can't do that, the only blocking effect available is 206, good against spells only, and so I end up organizing an exodus of all of the effects of wine to a special subspell. The item then casts this subspell... I feel like Moses shepherding the Jews out of Egypt, again and again. I have to reroute all of the references - TRA entries for spoken lines and 206 protections, subblocks in different places... This is only an example of how not being able to block an item doubles the amount of effort. I'm getting really tired of this, but what is the alternative? Is there one?

Before I go from here, I want to leave something behind. I've had this pdf file lying around for a long time. It's for making random fantasy adventures. It gives lovely results! I'm uploading the screenshots of the pages here, the last one larger than the others to make it easier to read, with an example of a rolled-up adventure. But the pages are legible even at this scale. I'm also attaching the pdf file itself at the end. Have fun! P. S. There is no avoiding a connotation to my vexed thoughts on fantasy role-playing in the neighboring thread, and here one might notice a contradiction. With this generator one can and will roll up items like a Mirror of Doom or a Sword of Stars, and the villains and characters are mostly stock material. Not completely, there is a vein of originality running through these choices, without which the generator would be stillborn. I'm sure that, had Wizards of the Coast decided to publish this kind of aid, theirs would be as blank and bland as the eyes of a zombie. Nonetheless, the question can't be avoided whether I am being hypocritical when I denounce "high fantasy" but embrace the experiences opened here. My answer is that these adventures is much better, more vivacious and true than the Forgotten Realms and other similar fiction, which (with a few rare exceptions) somehow sinks below the stock waterline. The standard elements here are yet not cliche, they are not filler for a void of imagination, between-covers for trademark pulp. They are inspiration for creativity and action. Download

There is a BAM file probably meant for Fire Storm, but not used in any spells or projectiles in BG1 or BG2. Is it something from Icewind Dale, just shipped along? I want to make another update of my special effects mod, with a little more fire. With some extra power from yours truly the effect would look something like this. It was paler in the original, but perhaps someone will recognize the animation. omeone will

I would like to like Dungeons&Dragons style fantasy, I really do. I used to like it. I think, though, I respected it back then. Somehow it did not jar my sensibility or taste. Some "high fantasy," especially the more recent simulacrums from corporate monsters, like the shit churned out by Wizards of the Coasts, Blizzard etc. over the last 20 years and more, always revolted me. The story of Warcraft 3 was vomitous in a way Warcraft 2's still doesn't feel. But even the wizards with staves and pointy hats and warriors in chain mail bikinis, and druids who are so wise and herbalist and Wiccan from classic years have stopped commanding my respect. I wish I could simply say that I outgrew them, and, of course, it's true that I didn't know back then what I know now, so I wasn't bothered, but I know I still want that which made fantasy fantasy - imagination. I see schlock for schlock now, however. I can't help but notice megaholes in plots, I can't do anything with stories where the antihero who has been sliding towards the dark side all his life gets redeemed at the last moment because someone shows him his mother's locket or something like that. None of the geography or economics of the Forgotten Realms, to take up just any setting, make sense... Are there economics? Social structures? Classes? Have a look at this picture from the FR Wiki online, lifted from some very old sourcebook, by the look of it: The caption reads: "A Turmishan warrior displaying her ornate armor." This is from an article on the land of Turmish. I consulted it hoping to find out something about that country, but instead I encountered a scattering of adolescent flash points. The country isn't even described in any detail in the wiki, and I doubt the sourcebooks were any better. The map is just a medley of dungeon sites, the locations have names like Morningstar Hollows and the Lake of Drifting Stars. Two landmarks not so far away from each with "star" in their names. For crying out loud, who wrote this crap? The governing body is called an Academy of Stars... And the warriors on the picture, here is what the article says about them: "Turmish was famous for its mercenaries and warriors, who were known to be honorable, impartial, articulate, and battle-skilled.[7][11] Intelligent and charismatic, Turmishan warriors were often conspicuous and stood out in a crowd.[Turmishan warriors were known to wear beautiful, ornate, and intricately crafted armor.26]" Obviously the numbers are references to valuable confirmations in which you should hasten to revel, but anyone with half an atom of logic would ask: "articulate," warriors? What, how? The only way to be articulate is through education, and warriors can't have any and don't want any, they spend that time learning to fight. "Intelligent" and "charismatic" go the same way; how intelligent and charismatic were medieval knights, those rude motherfuckers who bathed a couple of times a year? And intricate armor - how much would that cost? Just impossible all around. But it doesn't matter, because all this stuff about fancy armors and articulate warriors ever was was an excuse for some cosplay. Get together, dress like that, each invent a suit of armor, divide into teams of orcs and elves, fight a battle. That's all this kind of fantasy ever was - a fanfic. Of course, the illustration is appropriately crappy, so it grounds the text very nicely. But it's like that with everything. Okay, so the Forgotten Realms always did suck, and Elminster was a rip-off of Gandalf, yada-yada, but even more inspired settings like Krynn... I wonder to what extent I could go along with it now. There is nothing there that jars my memory, but I can't do anything with that fantasy either. At the same time, I don't find anything at all problematic with real writers of fantasy: de Camp, Howard, Leiber, Dunsany, Tolkien (at the time of "The Hobbit," anyway), Vance, Eddison... Their worlds were different from this commonplace reality outside the window mandated for all of us, they were strange worlds, but sensible in their own way - and for grown-ups. But the stuff upon which these forums float, for example, this standard fantasy fare is just collapsing in my eyes like an avalanche, it's rolling off the cliff and disappearing in the abyss where I don't care ever to see it. It's the same with much of science fiction. Some cut corners and a little naivety aside, I don't have any problems with "Babylon 5," I don't have to believe "Lexx," but "Farscape," as original as its visuals were, the series often had complete pap for plots. And I don't want to acknowledge that it was crap, I want to participate in the story without indulgences. The made-up parts don't bother me, I'm crazy enough for anything, it's the parts that connect to reality that I find offensive. What I'm trying to find here, speaking out loud in a void, is a sort of fulcrum, a kind of foundation point that's eluding me, where style and content can come together without requiring the audience to be very young or primitive. I don't want to think that all imagination is a youthful mistake. Even the good writers I mentioned, even they... weren't they deluding themselves with their bold and intricate fabrications? Even they, weren't they victims of a temporary blindness, lasting while one is relatively young and healthy and strong and in touch with one's time and ways - and feeling immortal? After that ends, if one has become a professional in time, it's possible to dream away, professionally, until one's final days. But is that all there is? A short fest of delusion and then a redoubt to keep reality at bay?

I haven't had much luck lately completely taking away minions' personal space, so they could be walked through without a sticking point. I have done this before, but I must be forgetting something now. So, you say, put the notes in global effects? All right, I might try that. My bear traps will take the legs off anyone who walks over them, so there'd better be note. ;D

You are right about Minimum/Maximum dice levels. I did some testing just now. Those fields don't use only the first class' level but the highest level in the creature's classes. My purpose is served here, perfectly, in fact. I was looking for some way to use the highest class, which spell headers didn't do, and this turned out to be it. So thanks.

I'm making a mod with some items, one of which uses a function never used before, not for this purpose anyway, and mostly intended for multiplayer. But I don't know how it would really work in a multiplayer game, and if. I need someone to install this mod of mine and start a game with me so we can try out the item, around Candlekeep or Irenicus' dungeon, at least. It will only take a minute to find out, and I'll credit this person when the mod is out.

That one only has fixes, apparently. But there have to be particulars relevant to multiplayer. Of course, if the game is pretty much "let's load this thing with a few tweaks and hack-n-slash as a party!", then those particulars would never come up.

But then the minion would occupy that same spot on which the trap lies, and how would anyone set it off? Well, that's the application in my case - traps that are sprung when walked over. Then again, Set Snare sets the note at the thief's location, in global effects, but the trap is set at an Any point within range, a few feet to the side.

Do they support altering effect 142 with custom icons and state names?

Good answer. Thanks. You should also test how well this protects against projectiles, with effect 83. That was my original question. I know about the order of effects with protections; for that matter, I even know that 318 is "faster" than 206 and can sometimes stop effects below it, too. In this case, when several traps would likely go off at once, I wanted to put some kind of block early on in the effects stack, so I chose Immunity to projectile. I'll go on the assumption that duration 0 also lasts only to the end of the current spell application.

There must be some features that make modding for multiplayer special. I invite people to discuss that here. And I have a particular interest right now: centering the screen on a character or a point, e.g. with the MoveViewObject action. How would that work in a party where the characters are all controlled by different people seeing different places on the map, around their characters? If I wanted them all to pay attention to something, would I need to do ActionOverride for every Player? ActionOverride(Player1,MoveViewObject("sarevok")) and so on? Or would a single MoveViewObject suffice, like in single player mode? I really can't test and check whether a Move for each would only apply to that character. Six jerks is not what I'm looking for.

I'm making some traps that are likely to be set all in a heap, on the same spot. When an enemy triggers them, he is going to get hit by the whole batch. But I had to increase the frequency of the trap AOE to compensate for its very small radius, and now it's sometimes too quick. Before the trap can cancel itself, it hits twice on occasion. I don't want to sacrifice frequency, and for this reason I need some way to make sure every trap's spell only hits once. The problem is that whether I put there an immunity to the projectile or an immunity to the spell itself, I must give it some duration, a couple of ticks, at least. But with all these traps in a bundle and using "None" projectile (or even anything else that quick) I know I would sometimes block the effects of subsequent traps. I remembered how some spells in the games use a Protection effect, against something, with duration 0, and I've used that too once or twice. I would like to know just how that works. Does Instant/Limited at Duration 0 mean protection during this execution of the spell, without occupying any real time? That would be ideal for keeping the traps separate, effective and repetition-free.

I don't want to interject in someone else's conversation, but since I already looked in this thread... Many level problems can be bypassed by using minimum/maximum hit dice. That parameter takes into account only the first class' level. To cover levels 1-20, instead of 20 abilities it is enough to make one ability with 20 effects, starting from minumum: 1, maximum: 1 and pointing to different resources.

What do that token and that object refer to in Icewind Dale games? Do they exist there?

Oh, so it does say that. What an easy tip. I would just let players figure out how to destroy those things, if I were designing the level.

Of course. That's the point. A fighter/cleric with one level in each needs two upgrades, one from each class, at the start. I'm more uncertain about how this would work with dual-classing, but it probably would. The example with Minsc also seems to describe just what should happen. Nothing can remove a set variable, global or local. It can only be set to zero. Anyway, I don't need to think about this any more. If anyone wants to make this kind of mod and give everyone a reliable way to detect total levels, they are welcome to it.

Maybe that works, although in my case using just the first class level may be acceptable. It's for something that happens every level and involves a slice of the experience total. I thought about it and realized that multi-classers will just see this event more rarely, but they will get a proportionally bigger share of XP, so that evens out in the end. Another thing that could be done would be to edit all CLAB files and add a self-casting spell for every class for every level, incrementing the same local variable by 1. That way there would be a ready variable to read for any character always. May be a good idea for a technical patch, in principle.

The Level() trigger only considers the first class of a creature, and PartyLevel must be like that too. It probably also shortchanges dual- and multi-class characters. I went to look at script actions hoping that there would be something more encompassing, but if this is all there is, then the Minimum Hit Dice/Maximum Hit Dice on effect limits will work just as badly. Maybe I could use stats? First run a LEVEL2 check and set a variable, then LEVEL3 and set another, then AddGlobals, and only then the check for LEVEL1 or Level()... But how many blocks would that take? For every possible combination of levels in the first, second and third class, that's crazy.

I sometimes use this effect on characters for emphasis, to give a swing or fall and rise again. But it doesn't work all the time. Some things seem to block it, some effects, may be. I know that if the custom spell is type "Special," this effect never works. Is there anything else?

Okay! An actual sensible answer from the Imp!

They don't come with a label "Kill me with fire" in Durlag's Tower either. I still haven't heard an answer to my question. Well, waiting.

I'm adding a new class, one of the monster classes. There is no limit to the number of entries in CLASS.IDS, is there? At least, it should go as high as 415, which is the number I decided to assign to the new class. When CLASS is edited by hand and this entry, 415 FISSION_SLIME, is selected for the monster, there seems to be no problem. But when I used APPEND in the tp2 and then WRITE_BYTE 0x273 415 for fission slimes, I saw an error. Is there some complication to this?

I think fission slimes are only encountered under Durlag's Tower, and not too many of them. But there can easily become lots more, if the party kills them with something other than fire. More and more. And when each one is finished, at last, it is worth 3000 XP. So, have people been exploiting this? Beating up on them, getting them to multiply, then fireballing the room? Because I'm thinking of doing something that might create many more of these slimes in different places, to be killed for that nice XP, but if they are easily exploited ad infinitum, even farmed, that may not be a good idea.

This one I will publish as-is. There a couple of problems with the spells, but with those fixed everything promised here will be working. I improved the Harpers' stronghold, too, and a portion of Xzar's quest, but I won't get to do the rest of my plan - to continue Xzar's quest to different locations and eventually find Montaron. He has been sent away, the party learns that much, but where - here the story will be left hanging. It will be the same way with "The Demon and the Dragon," where the original components, in the mod's name, have been perfect for a long time, but I went on to change Deirex, Jarlaxle's quest, much about Ust Natha - and was going to change more, but I do want to be finished with modding soon, so that one will also be as-is. You can help me make the unfinished parts playable.