19 replies to this topic

[flem]

Being ill (ungh) means I play a lot -- I just got through the boat quest. Thought I'd post thoughts together instead of in a bunch of different threads.

First, I don't know if this is the mod, but my swashie isn't getting the extra 1/2 attack from two longsword pips. Is this an engine issue? Maybe I should SK myself to a F/T...

Second, money. The entangle wand nets 14K! And the Robe is more. The King's Tear (I assume that's hardcoded) for exposing the smugglers seems ok, but random gems should maybe be nerfed -- or was I supposed to find a Laeral's Tear Necklace in the citadel entrance pond?

Third, are those Saradush seige guns I hear at the mayor's house? Also, the marketplace is labeled 'Trademeet' on the map... and the haunted house stairs are, somehow, 'Die, goblin, die!' Funny... but off.

Fourth, I had to open up NI to figure out where the basement stairs are in that thing... And would never have even realized there are any w/o the walkthrough. (Was thinking more or less 'huh, that's it?') Perhaps a hint in a dialog that they exist? Or would I have gotten it if I'd taken Ned instead of dumping him post alignment-check.

Rurik lacks an exit (or rejoin) dialogue if you dump him before Saltmarsh. Not sure of the others.

Didn't find any scripting errors besides the infinite-looping twig summons by the druid that was mentioned before. Oh, and his infinite wand use while offscreen. (Actually, I think there may have been an infinite potion-chug by the bosun too.) The summons loop doesn't, of course, happen if you kill him first.

Shouldn't the Saltmarsh quests (at least the haunted house) raise your reputation?

Finally, another oddity -- somehow Shadow had gotten stuck with a blank undroppable item in her inventory. I thought I'd have to SK/NI it out, but after a few save cycles it vanished. Wierd.

So far it's a lot of fun. Who am I going to kick out for the next NPCs, I wonder?

[cujo]

Second, money.  The entangle wand nets 14K!  And the Robe is more.  The King's Tear (I assume that's hardcoded) for exposing the smugglers seems ok, but random gems should maybe be nerfed -- or was I supposed to find a Laeral's Tear Necklace in the citadel entrance pond?

I think Sir BillyBob will be doing something about the money issue later on. Don't forget you can get quite a lot of Leather Armor +1 too and a lot of +1 and +2 weapons, giving you a lot of money and good armor/weapon very early in the game.

Fourth, I had to open up NI to figure out where the basement stairs are in that thing...  And would never have even realized there are any w/o the walkthrough.  (Was thinking more or less 'huh, that's it?')  Perhaps a hint in a dialog that they exist?  Or would I have gotten it if I'd taken Ned instead of dumping him post alignment-check.

I kept Ned and he doesn't say anything about the stairs, but I never had a problem finding them all.

Didn't find any scripting errors besides the infinite-looping twig summons by the druid that was mentioned before.  Oh, and his infinite wand use while offscreen.  (Actually, I think there may have been an infinite potion-chug by the bosun too.)  The summons loop doesn't, of course, happen if you kill him first. 

Bosun indeed keeps drinking potions until you start fighting him.

Shouldn't the Saltmarsh quests (at least the haunted house) raise your reputation?

Sir BillyBob has said before that reputation doesn't go up yet.

So far it's a lot of fun.  Who am I going to kick out for the next NPCs, I wonder?

Having just started U2 (I am in the swamp) I am wondering about the same thing and I still don't know who I will kick out for the next NPC. So far all NPC's are interesting and really well made.

[Sir BillyBob]

There are no new NPCs after you can pick up Althon and/or Blush. Aesdale is at the bottom of the ship and you need him for Blush to appear.

I can try to reduce some of the gems. I think the problem is with the random treasures but some of these are probably fixed into the containers. Most of the really good weapons are at the bottom of the ship. My original plan was for the lizardmen to demand them back but I don't know if I can really track what you have done with each one (sold it, dropped it, or still have it). If you dropped it somewhere, there isn't anyway to get it back for the lizardman chief. You can always buy an item back but the dropping was definitely an issue for me.

Bosun should be drinking an invisibility potion. He should only have 1 so I don't know why you are seeing him drink mulitple. Same with Belak the druid.

What other mods do you all have installed? Are you running the full .32 package or the .30 with the .32 patch? They should become the same but perhaps not.

I am planning a 1 or 2 rep points for the U1 mod. I just haven't added it to the dialogs yet as a reward.

The stairs to the basement should be obvious if you are moving the mouse around the screen. I even edited the area map to place those stairs there. The only hard ones should be the stairs going up to the second level because the wall angle blocks the view of them. You can't tell if those are stairs or a rug. My only solution would be to move them to another wall so they became more visable.

The wand seems to have an extra 0 in the cost. You shouldn't be getting any where near that amount for selling it. Which robe are you talking about?

[flem]

There are no new NPCs after you can pick up Althon and/or Blush.  Aesdale is at the bottom of the ship and you need him for Blush to appear.

He is? Argh, I just did a quick in-out to kill the captain, didn't search the rest of the place.

Bosun should be drinking an invisibility potion.  He should only have 1 so I don't know why you are seeing him drink mulitple.  Same with Belak the druid.

What other mods do you all have installed?  Are you running the full .32 package or the .30 with the .32 patch?  They should become the same but perhaps not.

Just 1pp. I'm running the full .32 -- only installed the TC elements of the package, none of the ease-of-use bits.

Odd thing is, I didn't see any entangle effect active when I went in... So perhaps it's just a wierd message thing. Why it would trigger from across the screen, I've no idea.

Which robe are you talking about?

Evil Archmagi. But it's those Arrows of Stunning that are really jaw-dropping... 35K a set! How much are Bolts of Paralyzation, or the superior Kuo-Toa bolts?

(More on Sahaugin treasure in my followup notes on U2-U3...)

[Sir BillyBob]

Hmm, the arrows come directly from IWD2. They must assume you will use them instead of sell them. Okay, I will have to tone down the cost. The robe is a modified Evil Magi robe so the cost is the same. However, you don't normally come across that robe so early in the game. Not sure why the robes are worth so much money when they are close to worthless. A few points on saves and a somewhat lower AC just don't justify BioWare's high cost for these robes.

I just checked the Bosun and he only has 1 potion. I will have to look at the scripts again to see what the problem is. With Belak he never used the wand on me anyway but I don't remember seeing any messages claiming that he was trying to use it.

You have the .32 mod installed just on top of SoA/ToB and the ToB patch right? You don't have TDD, BP or any other mod installed before installing CA?

The Sahaugin treasure should be relatively normal, most are random treasures except for a few weapons. The Lizardman's treasure is too high. When I converted this area from IWD2, I just changed the items from that game to this one, I didn't tone down what you get. I will have to go back and look at it again. Most players will never get access to the treasure vault unless they cheat or fight all the lizardmen in the lair (good luck!).

[flem]

Yeah, the Robes are a bit OTT. About the same as Vecna's -- the most powerful item in the game.

You have the .32 mod installed just on top of SoA/ToB and the ToB patch right?  You don't have TDD, BP or any other mod installed before installing CA?

Yup, and nope. I copied over a fresh installation's entire directory.

The Lizardman's treasure is too high.  When I converted this area from IWD2, I just changed the items from that game to this one, I didn't tone down what you get.  I will have to go back and look at it again.  Most players will never get access to the treasure vault unless they cheat or fight all the lizardmen in the lair (good luck!).

Yeah, I never found the Lizardmen's stash since killing them seems impossible without an order of magnitude more mage power. If there's something more powerful than Impaler (arguably the best weapon in SOA!), though, I'd be a bit surprised... (Actually, it would be sort of amusing to find the Shield of Reflection or some scrolls of Physical Mirror in the Sahaugin horde. )

[Edited to add -- the arrows also mention a Fortitude save, which needs revising to 2.0]

Speaking of which, I was going to try another run-thru (finding the elf guy this time) with a Sorcerer, but was flummoxed by my inability to select Sleep, Spook, or any other 1st level spell after Shocking Grasp. Is there a way to take out TDD spells from the sorc table or something? It makes the class more pain than it's worth if I have to SK my spell selections at every level-up.

Edited by flem, 14 September 2005 - 08:20 PM.

[flem]

Huh. Another try turned up two things: TC0012 really -does- have a hardcoded Laeral's Tear Necklace, and I can't seem to get Rurik to forge the armor from the ore. He goes through the dialogue and the cutscene, but no item is lost or gained.

Odd.

Edited by flem, 15 September 2005 - 01:54 PM.

[Sir BillyBob]

Hard-coded items are quite possible. When I key in an item's filename, the system doesn't tell me "hey that is very expense". I have to remember each item's basic info and decide if I want to add something that isn't random. I can step it down and probably will.

Rurik must still have a bug in his script. I had it working for me and I had the plate mail. I will have to look at it again. Same with him not saying anything if he leaves. He should say that you can find him in Saltmarsh.

Most new spells are higher in the filenames, i.e. SPWI143.SPL but some I placed into the open slots that BioWare left. I didn't think there was that many level one spells to kick the normals off the screen. *checks* There are only 3 before Spook. The problem with what you are asking is that if a sorceror wants the new TDD spells they can't get them because they will be off the screen. So there is no real solution other than to maybe strip out a crappy ingame spell(s) and offer them as scrolls. Then the issue becomes which spells get pulled? And how do you do this? No matter how it gets voted, someone isn't going to be happy.

I think the real problem here is how the sorceror class was built. It obviously wasn't built with the idea of new spells being added later to the game (since only the Wild Mage was added with their own spells, that seems to have been the only additions by BioWare - this problem probably never surfaced during testing). A cleric/ranger will have the same problem later when they get to the levels that put too many spells on the screen. In BP, this is solved by a special pair of gloves/bracers for the cleric/priest.

[cujo]

Rurik must still have a bug in his script.  I had it working for me and I had the plate mail.  I will have to look at it again.  Same with him not saying anything if he leaves.  He should say that you can find him in Saltmarsh.

IIRC the error is still SetGlobal("ForgeItem","GLOBAL",1) which should be SetGlobal("ForgeItem","TC0026",1). I'm at work and can't check at the moment.

[Sir BillyBob]

Damn, I missed that again?!

[flem]

I picked up Aesdale. But as with Lise, whom I couldn't get to appear without CLUA-spawning her, neither he nor Blush will reappear in TC0033 after their meal. I slept and returned; TCAesdaleBlush has been set to 3, so that part of the code has triggered.

Something malfunctioning with the "Activate" command? I don't know enough scripting stuff to diagnose it myself.

Edited by flem, 16 September 2005 - 01:11 PM.

[Sir BillyBob]

Lise shouldn't appear until after you have finished the U3 mod and reported to the Saltmarsh Captain. So you are either almost done or you cheated.

I am not sure why Blush isn't appearing like she should. Aesdale appears but not her.

[flem]

Lise shouldn't appear until after you have finished the U3 mod and reported to the Saltmarsh Captain.  So you are either almost done or you cheated.

Two different games. Wanted to do it again with Aesdale and Blush before posting.

I am not sure why Blush isn't appearing like she should.  Aesdale appears but not her.

[leahnkain]

I am not sure why Blush isn't appearing like she should.  Aesdale appears but not her.

She does appear...upstairs in the inn. (If my memory is correct.)

[Sir BillyBob]

She is supposed to appear there. The script looks right. I think I got it to work once, but now it sounds like the script isn't working again. Only Aesdale is appearing.

[leahnkain]

I am using the latest version and both are appearing. Are you using an older version of classic adventures?

[Sir BillyBob]

So your worked? Good, sigh. I was afraid that I didn't fix it again. I really want everyone to get a chance to use each NPC now so they have an idea of what we have worked on for dialogs/banters. If Blush still didn't appear, lots of work would be lost.

As a quick status here, I am wrapping up a BoneHill update while also working with Yacomo on expanding the map. Selgaunt will be like BG and Athlatka are now (exploded out detailed maps). Once I get the BoneHill update uploaded, I will get back to the MistMoor areas.

[flem]

So your worked?  Good, sigh.  I was afraid that I didn't fix it again.  I really want everyone to get a chance to use each NPC now so they have an idea of what we have worked on for dialogs/banters.  If Blush still didn't appear, lots of work would be lost..

Well, neither of them are reappearing for me, despite doing a complete reinstall. Guess I'm stuck.

Does .3 + the patch work?

[leahnkain]

Well, neither of them are reappearing for me, despite doing a complete reinstall. Guess I'm stuck.

I didn?t uninstall the last version when I updated the game. Maybe this has some influence why the NPC?s are appearing in my game.

[Sir BillyBob]

The patch is a patch. Therefore, it needs the .30 mod installed first. As long as you are now at .32, you have the latest area script for the inn. By the way, the timer is for 6 hours from when the two left you. So if you head over to the inn too soon, they will not be there. You can speed this up by using CTRL-T which bumps the time by one hour per use.