175 replies to this topic

[Qwinn]

FINALLY almost done with Lower Ward. Besides a couple more trivial dialogue corrections, last fix of note is:

If you didn't warn Thorp, and you waited a while before collecting your reward from Xanthia, when you talked to her the dialogue would say she gave you the cash but you wouldn't actually receive it because her script was already queued to make her leave the area. Fixed.

Qwinn

[Qwinn]

Um... it looks like my previous efforts to stop the Duplicating Matter of Course bug actually resulted in Diligence and Matter of Course never appearing at all.

Um.

Oops.

Sorry about that. Fixed! And I haven't been able to make the dupe show up yet, so it's looking good going forward.

Qwinn

[Qwinn]

Hope you'll like it

Fixpack version 3.0 will have a total rewrite of the rather involved "Iannis Has Worse Amnesia Than TNO" fix. What I changed in previous versions -was- worlds better than the vanilla Iannis who had worse long term memory than the guy in Memento, but it was still possible to repeatedly shock him with certain bits of information you'd discussed with him at length before. Did another full review, and I think I've cured him of most if not all of his amnesia now.

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 08 December 2008 - 02:47 AM.

[Qwinn]

*mumbles*

My fix from version 1.0 to Yvana not instantly talking to her daughter without ever leaving conversation with you didn't work right either. Ah well. Now it does.

Qwinn

[Qwinn]

Damn Lower Ward roped me back in...

Fixed a bunch of dialogue bugs and issues with the various gith in the Lower Ward. The upshot is that you can't ask anyone about the difference between the githzerai and githyanki anymore until you've actually met one and discovered they look so similar, and you no longer need quite as much metagaming knowledge as you used to in order to avoid having things end disastrously without any real mistake on the player's part.

Spoiler Details:

Spoiler

In the original game, if you have Dak'kon with you, you can talk to Kii'na and you can ask her (out of the blue) what the difference between githzerai and githyanki is, even though no one has mentioned githyanki. Then, if you approach Yi'minn with Dak'kon (and why wouldn't you? There's no way to tell he's a githyanki till you talk to him), and you already know what a githyanki is from Kii'na, there is absolutely no way to avoid combat except by treating Dak'kon like a slave and then giving Yi'minn 200 copper, which if he takes makes him disappear forever. Note that if you approach Yi'minn with Dak'kon and you -don't- know what a githyanki is, he will explain the difference and you can get out of the conversation and send Dak'kon elsewhere before talking to him again.

With the Fixpack, you can no longer ask "what's the difference between githzerai and githyanki" unless you've approached Yi'minn first. If you approach Yi'minn -with- Dak'kon, Dak'kon will immediately explain the difference (with a newly restored journal entry!) and you can get away from him so as to leave Dak'kon somewhere else before talking to him. If you approach Yi'minn without Dak'kon, if you end that conversation and then go ask other gith in the area what a githyanki is, they can then explain the difference to you.

Also fixed bugs wherein having Dak'kon warn you away from Yi'minn resulted in Yi'minn potentially saying "I told you before I didn't want to talk to you" when you approach him again without Dak'kon. In other words, Dak'kon telling you not to talk to Yi'minn (and you agreeing) will no longer make the game think you did in fact meet and talk to Yi'minn. You will also be able to ask the same questions on subsequent conversations that you can in your initial conversation with him - without that, under certain circumstances the entire second encounter with him would make no sense.

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 08 December 2008 - 11:52 PM.

[Qwinn]

Ok, things are moving along nicely, just about done with everything in Sigil. Now looking to pick up Nordom. Unless I run into something major I should be able to finish up and release by Sunday, maybe even earlier, hopefully.

The fix to make constructs immune to Horror/fear is working nicely. I'd like to ask the question: Are there any -other- creatures in game that should be considered immune to fear? As it stood, -all- creatures except undead are vulnerable to fear. Should Trias be? Or Ravel? Greater Glazebrus? The Fiend FMB? I have no idea if demons/devils/devas are supposed to be immune to it.

All modrons should probably be - I found D&D documentary backup that modrons are supposed to be immune to all mind-influencing spells including fear explicitly, even rogue modrons. I don't want to implement that until I'm sure I can make Nordom immune with an invisible item, though, and can't verify that till I reach him.

Note for Scient:

I can find nothing in the spell or in the undead creature files that makes undead immune to fear. I could only confirm their immunity by testing it. I'm thinking this must be hardcoded in the engine that undead types are immune. Can you check for me?

If it is an engine thing, it shouldn't be necessary to tweak the engine to make whichever additional creatures I need to immune. I did so for the Constructs by giving them invisible items that grant them the immunity effect, which is how greater glazebrus, for example, are made immune to paralysis, and it seems to be working fine.

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 11 December 2008 - 02:13 AM.

[Qwinn]

Nother quick fix:

It was possible to get Qui-Sai's "talk to the thief tutor" quest permanently stuck in your assigned quest list, if you boosted your intelligence prior to giving Qui-Sai Eli's answer so that you were able to skip over his "now talk to the mage tutor" quest. Fixed.

Qwinn

[Qwinn]

Just discovered that there are a number of infinite money exploits available in game.

Example: With a Friends-boosted charisma, take the Brimstone Hammer to Brocah and Miccah's shop. Sell it to them for 3600 copper. Buy it back for 3280 copper. Repeat endlessly.

Looking through the store files, I suspect this will be true in a number of other stores as well.

I'll be going through and methodically making that no longer possible. I'm going to attempt to do this primarily by increasing the price you can buy stuff from them, preferably leaving the price they'll pay you for your goods alone. Since very few of the merchants that will be affected by this actually have something in their initial stock worth buying, but are great for selling stuff -to-, this should fix the bug while still having the least impact on the economy of the game. (I actually think the economy in game is pretty reasonable and well done, except for this kinda major issue).

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 11 December 2008 - 04:26 AM.

[Daulmakan]

The fix to make constructs immune to Horror/fear is working nicely. I'd like to ask the question: Are there any -other- creatures in game that should be considered immune to fear? As it stood, -all- creatures except undead are vulnerable to fear. Should Trias be? Or Ravel? Greater Glazebrus? The Fiend FMB? I have no idea if demons/devils/devas are supposed to be immune to it.

I can't recall any from memory right now. Given their alleged power level ingame (they don't seem your average night hag/deva to me), I would be okay with Ravel and Trias being immune to it. The Fiend FMB reads as Glabrezu in IE, but his stats say otherwise. He seems to be an individual demon, no quarrel from me for making him immune to magical fear. Greater Glabrezus aren't immune to fear in P&P, although their magical resistance should negate that in most cases. I could see Vhailor being immune to it as well.

[Qwinn]

Thanks for the input, Daulmakan. Part of what I do will depend on if I can give PC's (Nordom and Vhailor) the immunity via an invisible item. I'm going to try anyway (by putting it in a slot that's normally "blank" for them) and see what happens.

I really can't see a reason -not- to give Ravel, Trias and the Fiend FMB immunity. None of those fights or critters should be trivial, and if that spell does land, trivial would be a nice word for it. So yah, I agree and they will be getting immunity.

Greater Glabrezu in PS:T have a 50% magic resistance and 11 saving throw... so basically it's got a 25% chance of landing on 'em. Meh. That still seems kinda more effective than it should be... (I don't know if the fact that Horror is a 2nd level spell makes a difference to the MR chances, or if it's just the caster's level or what), but if they're not immune in P&P, ah well, no real basis to take it away then.

Qwinn

[Qwinn]

EDIT: Just discovered that you can't sell -anything- to Keldor and Splinter, which reduces the scope of this fix quite a bit.

Most stores are 120 sell markup, 80 buy markup, with a handful of worse ones (like, Lady Thorncombe is . No problems there. Stores where you can generate infinite money with a charisma in the 20's are (sell markup/buy markup):

Brocah & Miccah (110/90)
Anarchist Vault (i.e. Conall) (100/80)
Crumplepunch's improved store (if you complete his quest to his satisfaction) (100/100)


Originally, I thought Keldor and Splinter (as faction vaults) being 100/100 was a big problem, but then I discovered you can't sell anything to them at all, so the 100 buy markup is irrelevant.

So now I'm left wondering if mebbe Conall wasn't supposed to buy anything from you either, and that's why his numbers are problematic. I'm actually leaning that way now, rather than my initial intent of making him 110/80. For the record, Emoric of the Dustmen is just like any other merchant - 120/80 - and does buy from you. The last faction (Xaositects) doesn't have a vault. I'm actually leaning now toward just setting every faction vault as 100/won't buy from you, including Emoric's. I think I will definitely make Conall that, at least, rather than fudge the numbers.

Setting Brocah and Miccah to 120/90 works great, they remain great to sell to but won't sell for less than they'll buy from you anymore at that rate. And Crumplepunch's improved store going to 115/85 works nicely as well.

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 11 December 2008 - 06:16 AM.

[Qwinn]

Okay, final decisions on fixing the infinite money exploits:

Since Emoric wasn't exploitaible, I won't touch him... he'll just remain a standard merchant with average pricing, unlike the other faction vaults. (EDIT: Changed my mind on this, see below)

Conall will no longer buy anything from you, same as Splinter and Keldor. His selling prices remain excellent at 100 markup.

Broccah and Miccah changed from 110 sell/90 buy to 120 sell/90 buy. They didn't sell much of interest anyway, that store's big draw was always that they pay good money for your stuff, and that remains unchanged.

Crumplepunch's store, which starts out at 120/80, gets better if he likes how you resolve his quest. The better store, at 100/100, was exploitable. Changing the better store to 115/85, which is about as good as I can make it without it being exploitable, unfortunately. Oh, his depreciation rate (which I -think- is how much less they'll offer you for goods they already have some of) does go down to 5 from 20, too, leaving that the same. For the record, if he -doesn't- like how you handle his quest, his store goes to 130/70.

EDIT: Changed my mind again! (Sorry, guys) Upon further reflection, there's actually a very very very -good- reason to set all faction vaults to not buy anything from you. That is, you could unthinkingly sell a quest item to them, and then if you leave the faction, you've essentially cut off from being able to complete that quest forever. Thinking back, I've seen several posts throughout the years complaining of precisely this. In my judgment, that's why Keldor and Splinter were set that way, and Conall and Emoric were supposed to be too but they got fudged somewhere along the way. Standardizing all faction vaults at 100/no buy.

For your spell shopping, the order to go in is:

Faction vaults (100)
Cinder, Mebbeth, Gaerien the Dead Nations skeleton merchant (120)
Giltspur, Kester (125)
Lady Thorncombe (140)
Quell (150)

(Just thought I'd jot that down, seeing as it was a pain sorting it all out)

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 11 December 2008 - 07:13 AM.

[Qwinn]

Very cool new component to the Tweak Pack will be going in.

Announcing the all-new RunningAttack! Tweak

See here for details:

http://www.shsforums...mp;#entry429473


Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 11 December 2008 - 09:23 AM.

[Qwinn]

The item immunity trick seems to work fine for Nordom. (Morte already had a similar trick going for immunity to poison).

So, in Fixpack 3.0, the following creatures will be immune to fear effects (in addition to all undead, who were already immune):

All constructs
All modrons (including Nordom)
Ravel
Trias
Fiend FMB
TO

(Vhailor is already classified as Undead so, depending on if that really is hardcoded in the engine, he probably is immune already. For now, I'll assume he already is.).

If anyone wants to make a case for an addition or subtraction to this list, please feel free to chime in.

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 11 December 2008 - 08:13 PM.

[Qwinn]

Decided to roll back the changes to the faction vaults' pricing. They are all still being set to "won't buy anything from player", to prevent the infinite money exploits and to prevent losing access to sold quest items due to changing factions, but other than my personal sense of game balance I can't really justify changing Emoric's 120 markup to 100, or Splinter's 90 markup to 100, as definitely a "fix". It could've been intended... IMO probably not (why would Emoric be the greediest faction leader by far?), but it coulda - maybe they wanted best available prices to slowly drop as game progresses - Dustmen are generally the first available faction with a vault, and Sensates generally the last. So, yeah, Splinter will remain at 90, and Emoric the greedy bastard will remain at 120. Keldor and Conall will remain at 100.

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 11 December 2008 - 08:17 PM.

[Qwinn]

Got a question for you folks who have a save game for Baldur's Gate 2, etc., that you can check.

Do the THACO bonuses from weapon proficiencies show up on your character screen? I thought they did.

I just noticed that in PS:T, the damage bonus from proficiencies is showing up on the character screen, but improved THACO isn't showing up at all. It's possible it's not even being applied! It definitely should be, the progression is in WSPECIAL.2DA. It's identical to the BG1 "True Grandmastery" progression. Number of attacks aren't listed in that 2DA file, but they behave the same as in BG1 as well (meaning, 1/2 attack at 2 proficiencies and an additional full attack at 5 proficiencies).

Anyways, so - are BG1 or BG2 like that? Do you see the damage bonus on your character sheet but not the THACO bonus? I'm guessing no, and this is a pretty major bug.

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 13 December 2008 - 03:00 AM.

[Qwinn]

I guess I'll see if I can figure it out from a brand new game, I guess.

In the meantime, cool little fix that winds up restoring a sound file to the game.

When talking with Ravel, at one point she brings up her question - "What can change the nature of a man?" It is exceedingly clear from the dialogue that depending on stat checks (either INT or WIS greater than 15 will do) you can remember the question prior to her asking it, and the dialogue explicitly says you're supposed to beat her to it. However, the same cutscene script plays whether you pass the stat check or not, and in it, Ravel asks the question, then you reply in a tone as if you never heard it before. There -is- an unimplemented sound file available that has TNO asking the question -without- that tone, and from the numbering sequence clearly was meant to be the file that played if you did pass the stat check (which I suspect nearly everyone does).

I contemplated putting this in the UB Restored Sounds and Banters component, but considering how explicit the dialogue is as to how the cutscene that follows should play, it really seems like a fix to me.

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 13 December 2008 - 07:56 AM.

[janjetina]

Got a question for you folks who have a save game for Baldur's Gate 2, etc., that you can check.

Do the THACO bonuses from weapon proficiencies show up on your character screen? I thought they did.

I just noticed that in PS:T, the damage bonus from proficiencies is showing up on the character screen, but improved THACO isn't showing up at all. It's possible it's not even being applied! It definitely should be, the progression is in WSPECIAL.2DA. It's identical to the BG1 "True Grandmastery" progression. Number of attacks aren't listed in that 2DA file, but they behave the same as in BG1 as well (meaning, 1/2 attack at 2 proficiencies and an additional full attack at 5 proficiencies).

Anyways, so - are BG1 or BG2 like that? Do you see the damage bonus on your character sheet but not the THACO bonus? I'm guessing no, and this is a pretty major bug.

Qwinn

They show up in BG 2, with ToB and G3 fixpack and tweak pack installed. Base THAC0, total THACO and the number of attacks all show up.

[Qwinn]

Thanks lots Janjetina That's what I figured. Bleah. Okay. I already sent scient a whole ton of very strange issues on the character screen, hopefully he can figure out if they're just not showing up on that screen but they're working, or if they're really not being applied at all.

(Another thing I noticed in my testing is that THACO bonuses from the various teeth weapons do not improve Morte's To Hit or THACO on his character sheet, the way weapons with THACO bonuses do update that field for all other characters.)

Qwinn