temnix

This is a question about IDS files generally and SOUND and SOUNDOFF in particular. I'm having a problem with an installation because of these. I have written about this before: SOUND and SOUNDOFF don't completely overlap. SOUNDOFF plays random sounds of a type, and SOUND has separate entries for SELECT_COMMON1, SELECT_COMMON2 and so on. What's called SELECT_RARE in one is just something like SELECT_COMMON5 in the other. Because SOUNDOFF was so limited, I expanded it with lines from SOUND in order to be able to use the VerbalConstant action to elicit particular sound bites from creatures. If I want the dragon to make his first-click roar and not the second in response, if I want the dwarf to swear and not to the curse, I need to be able to write VerbalConstant("cre",SELECT_COMMON1) or, say, VerbalConstant("cre",BATTLE_CRY2) and have it compiled. I did this a long time ago. And what it used to take was copy the expanded SOUNDOFF into override before compilation. Then Weidu would look at the expanded actions. But now I get an error while doing this. The extra lines are there, but they are not being recognized. There must have been some knack I have forgotten. Can anybody tell me what I need to do to get past these IDS errors? Or what to do in this case?

Some NPC, I don't remember which, have a single line with which they rebuff attempts at conversation. Like "I can't talk right now, I have business to run." You click on them, and instead of a dialogue window only this line appears. How is this done? If I make even a single state with True() as the condition, the window always appears.

It is probably possible.

Updated for extra kvetching.

Updated Here there are two new abilities. Only Book Casting will be installed unless there is some kind of Enhanced Edition. Discard Armor I have always been very annoyed by the need to choose whether to put on armor or take it off before every fight when playing fighter/mages, mages/thieves, bards, rangers with their sneaking and so on. It has been one of the main arguments against playing them. So I made it possible to strip off armor even during combat. All armor will now have that special ability. After clicking on the button the character will become uncontrollable and spend the next round ripping it off. He will lose the Armor Class bonus right away, along with Dexterity pluses, if any, the saving throws will be at -4, and vision will be curtailed very nearly. To keep things interesting, every time there is a 1% chance the suit will end up junked. I owe thanks to @Ardanisfor the macro used here and the explanation about how to use it. Book Casting An ability that works somewhat more smoothly under an Enhanced Edition. It is for all and only wizards from the 1st level on. Unlike powers in my other mods, this one is not given directly and can't be taught by characters to each other, it was simply added to the class ability tables. Therefore, level up to get it. Wizards will now be able to cast spells directly from their grimoires, without memorizing them. The casting time is RATHER prolonged, so this is not practical for fights, but it is useful when the character needs to cast Armor or something like that and there is no opportunity to rest. The wizard will take on a few points of fatigue every time and begin to kvetch and moan incessantly, which, I feel, balances this out enough. Masochists are welcome to exploit this power, though, to set up a googol of Skull Traps. Download

@InThePinewaysActually, we are even too late for the decline of the West, by a hundred years or so. And for deep reasons, I've started to like the idea of the original sin. I've always been a good Adamite and hippie, but there really seems to be some core of greed, vanity and desire for dominion over others in most people that circumstances of life don't explain. I've seen this in myself, too, but only when I suffer. When I have the things essential to me, I'm not like that. They, on the other hand, want to lord it over each other even in good times. But I'm not giving up on exploring the world! There are other dimensions, less known than what the maps show.

I have a big unfinished mod with some pretty evil stuff there. One of the spells turns a charmed creature or companion into an ice statue that throws spells at enemies. But you asked for quests. Well, that same mod has way too many spells to distribute across the stores, book shelves and pockets of existing NPC, I've already crammed them into every conceivable space. There were still some scrolls left over, and so I thought I might make a BG1 quest about an auction of magic. A library of rare spells is coming to Baldur's Gate, and the wizards of the city will be invited to bid on them. The Flaming Fist wants to make sure one 9th level spell doesn't fall into the wrong hands, or maybe to use it in the war with Amn, so they sponsor the party for a few thousand jeepies. And it can be a normal bidding, but if the party has removed Ramazith, Ragefast or Degrodel beforehand, they won't be there to drive up the prices. Another idea was to have a spell that summons a quasit, who runs a shop with some special items, but will only deal with the party after they have collected some body parts. Colons from five officers of law, that sort of thing. Dropped on death. A third spell would summon an imp (who hates the quasit), and the imp will give the party a sacrificial sickle. Killing an innocent with that knife will make a gemstone appear in the inventory: start sapphire for a man, emerald for a woman, diamond for a child. I wanted to make rubies, too, but an imp wouldn't want lawmen killed, so there is no need for a fourth stone. Poaching would be easy, too. A rare moose is on the loose, and some hunters want his antlers bad. A lot of things can be bad, if they are done right. In fact, everything done right is bad to someone.

@InThePinewaysDisco Elysium's system requirements were too high for me. And it was very original, judging by everything, but in a sort of "postmodern" way, to use that as a shortcut. Then again, one must take leaps of faith. Previous generations didn't have to vault over these cracks of emptiness, though, in the hope of reaching the other side where the genius in the author has made stones bloom. And I don't think there is a new culture coming, because mechanization ins't human to begin with. At a wobbly interface line between folklore and industrial society there were at first attempts at original horror, reconceiving traditional images (shapeshifters, angels, demons, wizards, all of them), urban fantasy was born, but that was only a period. What looked like a balance between the rational and the irrational across the 20th century, the fertile ground for all of science fiction, to begin with, was just a temporary state when one watercolor is being washed away by another, and for a while they are swirling in a mix. That's how it was with dystopias, you know? In the 20th century all of the best ones were written (did "When the Sleeper Wakes" still catch the 19th? Anyway...) But it always seemed like these terrible futures would remain futures. It seemed like the thunderclouds would remain on the horizon. All the foresighted writers warning 30-50-100 years in advance about environmental disasters, dehumanization, state control, overpopulation, genetic manipulation, they seemed to be sitting snugly in a safe niche. And in a way, they were, because back then it was possible to make a decent living from fiction. It was like dystopias were a permanent genre and you could produce them forever. Make a career out of warnings. And some people like Ballard or Ellison pretty much did, but only because they happened to live in the postwar years - not too early, not too late, just right. Those things seemed like a normal accessory of development, warnings. And every warning was only a snapshot from the generational position of the writer. Some caught the clouds farther away, but did not believe they would really come, some were brought up with them closer, which already seemed normal, though old men knew so much ground had been lost. But the storm front was not a nightmare, it was moving in all along, all that acclaimed fiction had no effect whatsoever, and some time in the early 2000s it finally quite arrived. In my opinion, no new culture will be forthcoming if technology continues its roll into the foreground, and the minority of people in the world who have different ideas about progress have no clout. Ursula Le Guin wrote not long before her death that in the near future the art of remembering will become very important. The people who remember how things were done right will be crucial in resisting these times with their obsessive technologies, she wrote. That's part of what I've tried to do with my mods. They are very traditional, in a way. I wanted to remind people of what it means to have choices, to have occupations in a game other than accumulate points or make power builds. And once you have that, it turns out the elves and dwarves are okay, the alignments are okay. If you let yourself breathe, they don't need to be reformed. And the traditional gender roles are okay too, if kindness and fairness are brought to them.

Nothing, unless you are a dark elf NPC. Unless you are a dark elf NPC. Unless you are a dark elf NPC. That's it, I'm not looking here any more! The point I set out to make was that too few mods consider the Icewind Dales in their mechanics, let alone make something for them. As for the writing and ideas around here, sure, there are going to be a few accidents of quality, but by and large, if any decent writers have tried composing for this "scene," they have long quit after realizing no one would tell their stuff apart from the schlock. It's the same situation as with any online creativity. It's pretty much a waste of time.

When I first proposed an evil ranger, I put up some pictures about the dark side of nature for inspiration. Here is that topic:

The D&D ranger is a protector of the wilderness. Naturally, he is good. Or a protector from the wilderness. The image might have been derived from Aragorn. The time distance is such now that it is easy to underestimate the impact Tolkien had on the first iterations of D&D. They had balrogs in the first one... Of course, later editions might have done away with the restriction, but that's because they no longer have the notion of what kind of world they want to portray. They allowed all races to take all classes and removed level limitations, which was "fair" and crowd-pleasing, but what happened to the idea of limitless human potential packed in a short lifetime without special birth gifts? Not by accident it was Raistlin Majere and not the magician-kings of Qualinesti who rivaled the gods of Krynn. This sort of thing no longer can be understood or even well-remembered. And so on, and so forth. Well, I see there are some takers for the evil ranger kit, so I think I'll make it. As for the helmet, I could insert a few words into the description to explain that. It comes together with the armor restriction (max chainmail, I think). The cateran will be a light-footed warrior, so no tower shields either. And look, rogues can't use helmets too. I don't know why. By the way, the armor restriction might not be so difficult, because I know a way to let characters take off armor during combat. There'll be less paperdoll hassle when switching. I'll put that out as a separate mod as soon as I iron out some issues.

Camdawg, why don't you just go away? Or change your avatar, at least. Looking at those wrinkles every time gives me a skin rash. But that condition doesn't prevent me from being a special daddy to all the NPC written up about this place. "Oh, Charname, you're so very unique! I've never met anyone like you before! You changed my outlook on life! Let's rub noses!" Harlequin paperbacks have got nothing on your content, people.

What you people make are tweaks and NPC written for 13 year-old girls. But, I guess, a mod to bring frost to the snow areas would be a tweak.

I don't care to listen to anything subtledoctor says. For others who wonder, though, the description text for this kit, if I make it, might read something like this: "The cateran is a highwayman, outlaw and poacher. Better at laying traps and using poison than honest confrontation, he is unprincipled and merciless as the wilderness itself. Some caterans serve as spies and liaisons for evil dragons, witches and giants, others play guides and give sanctuary to brigand gangs, still others inhabit remote cabins as dark hermits, the better to breed giant spiders and other monstrosities." The downsides would probably include armor restrictions, no helmets either so they may fear critical hits (I'm tired of PC ignoring the whole critical hit danger) and no free slots in two-weapon fighting. They would still be able to develop that to three slots and they would get a free slot in darts. The abilities, as I see it, would include making blowgun darts with sleep poison, laying traps and summoning ettercaps. Maybe also a fixed x2 backstab.

There should be mods made more with the Icewind Dales games in mind. Those are a bunch, counting the expansions, on the Tutu engine, at least. Either specifically mods for them, like biting cold for the snowy areas, or mods where the creator considers their being played in an Icewind Dale. At the moment they are like weeping ghosts, forgotten.

I wrote about a kit for evil rangers a year ago. More than that, probably. Offered some inspiration for any takers. Now it seems like somewhat new territory. I haven't done a kit before. If it doesn't take very long... Do you people still want it?

The grinning Irenicus is a fright. But, of course, it has to be added, because if it's not added, it will not receive its due importance, that none of these AI tweaks are worth one new, drawn portrait. Anybody who tries to create a new character, however clumsily, even with digital tools, is already forging ahead from these stale waters. Where I am myself adrift. This is a boring comment, but maybe it will make someone pick up a pencil.

I think Edwin and the others wanted to study their particular fields. Or had other reasons. I'm putting up an update - the dual-classed Imoen in the beginning of SoA insisted on acquiring this ability despite precautions. Now I proofed all NPC of inappropriate classes and kits.

I remember distinctly that trying to make a spell hit only PC, or ENEMY, or NEUTRAL with effect 326 never used to work. Effect 177 had to be used. It was some kind of bug, apparently. I don't know if 326 works now, strictly speaking, but EA-aimed protections with 318 do. I'm blocking everyone but PCs with the "Allegiance !=" line here. Has something been fixed along the way that I don't know of? By "now" I mean version BGEE 2.5, which is what I have.

You are right. It's more or less the same thing as putting the yes and no effects in separate spells and writing the probabilities in a previous spell. That's what I did. Your way would have been a little easier, but also more confusing to look at, with the whole lot of them inside the same spell.

That would have been a possibility too, I guess. Although here I couldn't have used some of the effects with a Delayed/Permanent timing. Lore bonus doesn't work with that timing, for instance. Either way, it had to be a fork, and I separated the success and failure effects into different spells.

Probabilities are checked, and in order. The problem turns out to be with targeting and durations in dialogue. Only effects that are targeted at Self apply during a conversation, and then they don't accept Instant/Limited duration 0, which in the case of 206 or 318 would normally close off effects farther down without stopping future applications of the spell. If the duration is limited, it must be real, but any length of it, even a few ticks, is "frozen" for the rest of the dialogue. The result is going to be an increasing difficulty of rolls: if the first timed block is passed, then the engine must roll again the next time. This is not how I envision the working of this bonus. I'm still thinking about this. Perhaps I can use subspells with the bonus instead of blocking the bonus effects down the list. One-pronged forks, in other words.

The Mage/Mage in dialog is not the right string. I would need to look in the lua files, then. But the mod is done now, without corrections to strings.

Updated Enhanced Edition is not required. Before I explain this mod, let's get the vocabulary straight. The AD&D class that finds spells in texts and casts them from memory is called the wizard. A subclass of that class, without any concentration, is called the mage. There is, therefore, no such thing as a specialist mage, no matter how unclear about this the games' own interfaces are. And mages are the most common and normal variety of wizards. They can and do learn all magic they come across. The typical undead-herding necromancer is not a specialist in necromancy, he is only a mage. The typical fireball-throwing bazookaman is not an invoker, he is only an asshole. It is the specialists, artificially limiting themselves to one field of study, that need case-by-case justification in a world. Usually they are researchers, advisors, spymasters or the like. Now, a computer adaptation would really require a very different game engine from Infinity to highlight mages' easy versatility and specialists' handicaps. When the group is staring at a sea strait and the party's abjurer confesses he never will be able to learn water walking and a lot of of other things they will discover in moments like this, his protective spells will be at once quoted down. But when there are no such mechanics as crossing water or going under water or tunneling or flying or learning secrets or speaking languages, players will only appreciate the one extra spell slot per level and the bada-bing bada-boom that can be crammed there. Mages would still shine if more interesting spells it would be a pity to miss were made for the games, and the more such spells exist on a system, the better they look. For now they can market themselves as a transition subclass and take advantage of the new ability to specialize from the 2nd level onwards. The race and statistic requirements are the same as when starting out as a specialist - right-clicking on the ability button will display the list. This option is only open to full, single-class wizards, and it will disappear if dualing into the mage subclass or out of it. When the character decides to concentrate in a particular field, he will be pushed back in his development, losing 2% of current experience per character level. He will not go down in levels from this, but the next advancement will retreat by so much. How high an obstacle this becomes will depend on how soon the character decides on a vocation. For a 2nd level mage a loss of 4% of experience is nothing relatively and absolutely, but a 15th level one would be set back by 30%. The most experience that can be lost is 50%, for a 25th level mage, because at that point it will not be realistic to climb up to the 26th as a specialist, though specialization itself has no upper limit. Why specialize in the course of adventuring instead of starting out that way? Because the born-again specialist will have access to the spells he learned before. Opposition school spells are off-limits to specialists at character creation and scrolls with them are unusable, but a wizard can cast anything he has been able to get into his spellbook. The longer time a mage spends adventuring, the more scrolls he will find in the world to scribe before taking the plunge - but, of course, this time will be traveled and fought without the benefit of the extra slot - and then there is the experience penalty. Players can decide for themselves when it is soon enough. In the first BG they might want to switch after buying the stock of High Hedge. Or is it better to wait until the Sorcerous Sundries? Or until after the scrolls of the wizards on the Ice Island? Mages will also be able to gather statistic points for specializations of their choice. The three Tomes of Understanding in the first game will have more of a purpose if working towards a focus in Divination or Necromancy (Wisdom 16 required for both). Download

I want to give a boost to mages - the wizards without a specialization. The best way to do that under this engine is to introduce many interesting spells in all schools of magic so that players who specialize for the sake of that extra slot per level would miss out on a whole bunch of possibilities. Well, I can make a few. (The second part of the answer is that they should use some kind of mod that denies an extra school to specialists or brings other restrictions, if they can do this to themselves.) So what are the schools that get left out by the min-maxing player? Divination, I expect? Transmutation, maybe? What is the situation on Illusion vs. Necromancy? And by the way, mages are by far the most common and normal wizards in the Forgotten Realms and everywhere. Elminster is a mage, Khelben is a mage, Vanderdagast the royal wizard to the late Azoun IV of Cormyr is a mage, if he's alive - and only a 15th level one, by the way, for a measure of relative power in the setting compared to what we get in the BG series. In BG2 there are 15th level wizards - and higher - thronging in random encounters and on obscure little maps. A specialist, in my opinion, needs a good raison d'etre. They are rare, like genetic biologists in science... or proctologists in medicine, if that's more up your valley. Being a plain wizard is specialized enough, by Zeus.