154 replies to this topic

[Demivrgvs]

Wisp, on 28 January 2011 - 08:00 AM, said:

So anyway, I ended up creating a "PnP Color Spray" spell for the Ultroloths. But there's nothing that prevents me from applying the same code to the Wizard spell, in case anyone's interested in a component like that. I guess this "PnP Spells" component could be expanded in the future, if I come across any other spells that deviate from PnP for no good reason. I imagine there'd be significant overlap with Spell Revisions (e.g. I wouldn't be surprised if Spell Revision's Color Spray is nearly identical to aTweaks').

For reference, PnP-in-BG2 Color Spray works like this:
If the target's level is equal to or lower than the caster's level and lower than level 6, the target is struck unconscious for 5 rounds.
If the target's level is equal to or lower than the caster's level and level 6 or higher, the target is struck unconscious for 5 rounds unless he saves vs. spell.
If the target's level is 1 or 2 higher than the caster's level, the target is blinded for 2 rounds unless he saves vs. spell.
If the target's level is 3 or more greater than the caster's level, the target is confused for 1 round unless he saves vs .spell.

Plain-BG2 Color Spray strikes the target unconscious if he's level 4 or lower and fails a save. If he's higher than level 4 the spell has no effect.

It indeed overlaps with SR's Color Spray. Anyway, neither mine nor your version is 100% true to PnP, as we're both applying small tweaks to it.

SR's version does the following: "creatures with Hit Dice/levels less than or equal to the caster are confused for 5 rounds, those with Hit Dice/levels one or two greater than the wizard are blinded for 3 rounds, and all others are stunned for 1 round. Creatures with more than 22 Hit Dice/levels will have to save only against the stun effect, regardless of the caster's level."

I've replaced PnP 'unconsciousness' with 'confusion' following players suggestions, because the former is too powerful (it's pratically a Mass Hold Monster at 1st lvl), not to mention it would overlap and outshine Sleep in every possible way.

You've instead replaced PnP 'stun' with 'confusion', though I don't know why I guess you're doing it for balance purposes. Speaking of which I do had in mind to somewhat nerf it too, perhaps replacing 'stun' with something less "drastical" like 'daze'.

That being said, feel free to overlap SR if you wish so, as long as it's installed after SR it's perfectly fine. I just wanted to give you some informations for completeness.

Edited by Demivrgvs, 29 January 2011 - 08:17 AM.

[Wisp]

Demivrgvs, on 29 January 2011 - 08:15 AM, said:

I've replaced PnP 'unconsciousness' with 'confusion' following players suggestions, because the former is too powerful (it's pratically a Mass Hold Monster at 1st lvl), not to mention it would overlap and outshine Sleep in every possible way.

Hah, yeah, since you can't implement the number-of-creatures limit Color Spray as per PnP would be pretty sick in BG1. Maybe that's reason enough not to alter the mage spell in aTweaks.

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You've instead replaced PnP 'stun' with 'confusion', though I don't know why I guess you're doing it for balance purposes. Speaking of which I do had in mind to somewhat nerf it too, perhaps replacing 'stun' with something less "drastical" like 'daze'.

I interpreted confusion to be the BG2 effect most true to the spirit of the effect of the PnP spell. The spell description says "stunned (reeling and unable to think or act coherently)" whereas stunned characters in BG2 are sitting ducks you do not even have to roll to hit.

Edited by Wisp, 29 January 2011 - 11:14 AM.

[aVENGER]

Small update here. I'm doing a light revision of the fiends scripts. Nothing major, just some targeting improvements and a few enhancements here and there. One of them is a new Wish option for the Pit Fiend:

Wish: Improved Haste on self and allies

It pretty much mirrors the player's option of casting Improved Haste on all party members. The interesting part is, it fits the Pit Fiend very well because it can gate in a bunch of friends really quick, with Fiendish Gating installed. It should make encounters with them a bit more challenging.

In other news, I'm slightly revising the fiendish gating behavior. Fiends will no longer stand idle while opening gates and will give gating a bit more priority. It pretty much works like mephit gating now (while still remaining an optional component) complete with a console command to turn it on/off at your leisure.

Also, if the party engages a fiend, then runs away to rest up and comes back later, they can now expect the fiend(s) to be fully rested too. Leveling the playfield and all that.

[aigleborgne]

Nice addition. Finally, demons regain their natural powers

In books, demons are dangerous and fearsome. In game, they were merely an annoyance, nothing to worry about.

I was especially thinking at watch tower keep, when you enter demon's plane. Now it should be deadly for an unprepared party.

[aVENGER]

T, on 30 July 2011 - 11:16 AM, said:

I'm not sure if it's an intended result or not (I'm not overly familiar with PnP), but fiends' True Seeing ability seems to bypass SI:Divination, while their other spell-like abilities don't bypass SI, such as SI:Conj countering their Power Word:Stun.

Except for having a casting time of 1 and being non-disruptable, all of the spell-like abilities which the fiends use should behave exactly the same as their wizard/priest counterparts.

However, note that some fiends have an ability to always see invisible opponents and/or detect illusions which isn't blocked by SI:Divination. For reference, these abilities are marked as "always active" in the readme so what you are experiencing is in fact intended behavior.

Quote

Thanks, it's a great mod.

Glad you liked it.

Edited by aVENGER, 30 July 2011 - 12:01 PM.

[aVENGER]

One of the drawbacks of summoning fiends was that the player couldn't control their movement. Sometimes, this resulted in unfavorable situations i.e. you summon a Balor and a Glabrezu to help you out against a pack of Fire Giants but after the initial battle is over, the fiends start to wander around the area and go their separate ways. If one of the fiends encountered another enemy group, it would face them alone, without the help of its fellow Tanar'ri. Well, all that is no more. As both Tanar'ri and Baatezu possess telepathy by nature, I've implemented a "telepathic call for help" into the AI routine of all summoned fiends.

Telepathic calls for help

In short, if a lone summoned fiend encounters an enemy it will signal all other summoned fiends of its type (i.e. Tanar'ri or Baatezu) that are in the area (and not currently engaged in combat) to teleport to its location. This in term, allows the player to get a bit more mileage out of summoned fiends as it gives him an indirect way of controlling their movement. This also makes summoned fiends a bit more efficient as they tend to work better in groups. FYI, this will be implemented as of aTweaks v3.70.

Edited by aVENGER, 09 October 2011 - 01:43 AM.

[Andrea C.]

As usual, pretty awesome!!

[Galactygon]

It's a fine addition, creatively done. I don't remember seeing this in any other mod.

-Galactygon

[aVENGER]

Thanks!

The code's not that special actually, it's basically just GlobalShout() + teleport. Here's a sample:

IF
	!GlobalTimerNotExpired("RR#Help","LOCALS") // shout for help every two rounds while in combat, other allies may hear it and join the battle
	See(NearestEnemyOf(Myself))
THEN
	RESPONSE #100
		SetGlobalTimer("RR#Help","LOCALS",12)
                GlobalShout(5827) // aTweaks global shout
		Continue()
END

IF
	!GlobalTimerNotExpired("RR#Cast","LOCALS")
	Allegiance(Myself,GOODCUTOFF)
	!Range(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),20)
	Heard([GOODCUTOFF.0.DEMONIC.0.0.0.MASK_CHAOTIC],5827) // Tanar'ri fiends global shout
        InMyArea(LastHeardBy(Myself))
	!Range(LastHeardBy(Myself),12)
	!StateCheck(LastHeardBy(Myself),STATE_REALLY_DEAD)
THEN
	RESPONSE #100
		SetGlobalTimer("RR#Cast","LOCALS",6)
                ForceSpellRES("RR#TELWE",LastHeardBy(Myself)) // Teleport Without Error
END

IF
	!GlobalTimerNotExpired("RR#Cast","LOCALS")
	Allegiance(Myself,EVILCUTOFF)
	!Range(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),20)
	Heard([EVILCUTOFF.0.DEMONIC.0.0.0.MASK_CHAOTIC],5827) // Tanar'ri fiends global shout
        InMyArea(LastHeardBy(Myself))
	!Range(LastHeardBy(Myself),12)
	!StateCheck(LastHeardBy(Myself),STATE_REALLY_DEAD)
THEN
	RESPONSE #100
		SetGlobalTimer("RR#Cast","LOCALS",6)
                ForceSpellRES("RR#TELWE",LastHeardBy(Myself)) // Teleport Without Error
END

[aVENGER]

A few more notes regarding the fiends.

Firstly, the Pyrotechnics spell-like ability will be restored to all fiends that are supposed to have it. It's basically mass blindness with a 3 round duration.

Pyrotechnics

Secondly, while working on Dryads and co. I noticed that all BG1 creature animations have their movement rate set too low by default. For example, in PnP, Dryads are supposed to be as fast as humans or elves, but in BG2 they move much slower. This has been rectified for PnP Fey creatures, but then I noticed that the same issue applies to certain fiends as well.

To clarify, in PnP, most fiends are slightly faster than humans (though there are a few exceptions) while in BG2 any PC can easily outrun them. To rectify this, I've adjusted the movement rate of all fiends in accordance to their PnP blocks. In practice, this simply means that PCs can no longer outrun Pit Fiends, Gelugons, Nabassu and Balors and that Cambions and Succubi now move at the same rate as humans. However, some fiends like Cornugons and Abishai will remain slower than humans, as per PnP.

[Andrea C.]

More awesome coming to our games

[Shaitan]

Wow this and Fey Creatures (and all your other stuff) is marvelleous.

[aigleborgne]

Yes I noticed this problem long time ago Bear are the best example, slow as hell and they are supposed to be as fast as humans...
My solution is to apply a movement speed effect to each monster based on their PnP speed.
Easiest way is to set movement, you just have to find a multiplier between PnP and game, I found out that 0.75 seems to fit.
If movement is set, I'm not sure effects like haste and slow work correctly, I need to check.
Toughest way is to increase movement so it matchs PnP. Better, but needs some testing to find the correct value for each animation!

aVENGER, on 22 October 2011 - 11:53 PM, said:

A few more notes regarding the fiends.

Firstly, the Pyrotechnics spell-like ability will be restored to all fiends that are supposed to have it. It's basically mass blindness with a 3 round duration.

Pyrotechnics

Secondly, while working on Dryads and co. I noticed that all BG1 creature animations have their movement rate set too low by default. For example, in PnP, Dryads are supposed to be as fast as humans or elves, but in BG2 they move much slower. This has been rectified for PnP Fey creatures, but then I noticed that the same issue applies to certain fiends as well.

To clarify, in PnP, most fiends are slightly faster than humans (though there are a few exceptions) while in BG2 any PC can easily outrun them. To rectify this, I've adjusted the movement rate of all fiends in accordance to their PnP blocks. In practice, this simply means that PCs can no longer outrun Pit Fiends, Gelugons, Nabassu and Balors and that Cambions and Succubi now move at the same rate as humans. However, some fiends like Cornugons and Abishai will remain slower than humans, as per PnP.