821 replies to this topic

[DrAzTiK]

delete please

Edited by DrAzTiK, 23 August 2011 - 06:39 AM.

[DrAzTiK]

Surely already proposed but could it be possible to equip a one handed ranged weapon (sling, darts, throwing axe etc...) when a an off-handed weapon is equiped ?

Even in vanilla, fighter/mage can throw Melf's Minute Meteors even if they fight with 2 weapons. (but they loose 1 attack per round) so...

It would a nice fix for non fighter character (bard,thief and many multiclassed characters) who want to stay at the back most of the time while keeping a decent chance to fight in melee. (futhermore, shields are rarely appealing for them) .

Right now, I play a Swashbuckler, oriented in dual weapons fighting style obvisously. Ii is a litle bit sick not be able to twrow projectile and only play this character like a Tank.

Edited by DrAzTiK, 23 August 2011 - 06:40 AM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Even in vanilla, fighter/mage can throw Melf's Minute Meteors even if they fight with 2 weapons. (but they loose 1 attack per round) so...

That's because the Melf's MM uses a magical effect to over-equip the character with limited amount of of projectiles that disappear... and it will be temporarily two handed weapon, and the other equipment cannot be re-equipped until the effect is over... so the character will get the full ranger equipment penalties at melee range(practically -4 to all luck rolls).
I don't think there's happy solution for this, except the re-equipment script... but I don't remember where it is.

[DrAzTiK]

I don't think there's happy solution for this, except the re-equipment script... but I don't remember where it is.

Hope you will remember one day

I also would like to speak about haste effects (from potion and spell level 3). Sometimes, it doesn't provide a full attack per round but only half one. (especially if the character under haster effect don't have a base attack per round witch is a plain number). Is is ok for eveybody ?

[Jarno Mikkola]

I don't think there's happy solution for this, except the re-equipment script... but I don't remember where it is.

Hope you will remember one day

Well, I saw it here, and it indeed was: here : So go and use the offhand weapon swap from there.
PS: the first request on this function was at the second page of this thread.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 23 August 2011 - 10:10 AM.

[DrAzTiK]

Offhand Weapon Swap - BETA 1

This is a script mod designed to allow a dual wielding character the ability to drop their offhand melee weapon in order to use a ranged weapon.

I don't want this at all.

For example: let's say I play a guy that uses a tower shield in his off-hand. If I want him to use a longbow for his quick ranged weapon, I can't because of the shield. And vice versa if I want to equip a shield while having a bow in a quick slot.

I know you can do this in IWD II but I don't like it at all. Completely unrealistic. ( and what about balance especially in BG2)


I just want to allow characters to use a one handed ranged weapons while having a off-handed weapon equiped. We can already do this with shields. Is it really impossible to code something? It looks so same.

cheers

[Jarno Mikkola]

Hmm..

I just want to allow characters to use a one handed ranged weapons while having a off-handed weapon equiped. We can already do this with shields. Is it really impossible to code something? It looks so same.

Hmm, what benefit would the second hand weapon provide ? If it's nothing like in the above case, then you can use the Offhand Weapon Swap mod, as it's off hand equipment swapper, not just weapons.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 23 August 2011 - 11:34 AM.

[DrAzTiK]

Hmm, what benefit would the second hand weapon provide

The benefit is to switch easily and instantanely from ranged weapons into two weapons fighting of course. (without needing to press pause and go into inventory)

Damn you make me mad.

Edited by DrAzTiK, 23 August 2011 - 12:40 PM.

[DrAzTiK]

Baldur's gate is dead ?

[Aranthys]

Ascension64 has already said that he would probably not change anything related to weapon switching.
While it may seem easy, the code might be much more complicated than you think.

Anyway, to sum it up, DrAzTiK wish is as follow :

- Since it is possible to have 1h throwing weapon + Shield, is it possible to have 1h throwing weapon + offhand weapon.
- Benefit : No need to go to the inventory to equip a 1h throwing weapon if you're dual wielding

Baldur's gate is dead ?

Well, by saying things like :

Damn you make me mad

you're less likely to get additional answers.
Even if such a component was to be coded by Ascension64, it would probably not be available until quite a long time, so in other words :

Be patient

[ran]

Hello all,

First thanks to ascension64 for all the efforts in keeping BG2 alive,

I think i have a good wish to add to wish list Spell Trap, spell turning etc. seems flaky in BG2 & ToB.
They seem to stop working for no reason and start working in next area.
I think it has something to do with too many creature effects.

Fixing them to work reliably would be a great addition to ToBEX.

I have attached a bugged save game where spell trap fails.
If you edit the save game and remove all 'Modify proficiency' effects from the summoned NPCs in AR4500 (Abysall Fortress), voila Spell Trap works.
Or you can remove AR4500 from the secondary area slot (the slot ToB keeps where you have last been for Abysall Fortress travel to last location option) same effect; spell works.

Thanks again for all your efforts so far, good luck

Attached Files

•  000000004-Quick-Save-TOB.rar   951.41K   163 downloads

[the bigg]

Dual wielding launchers (AKA slings) can't be done because there are no attack animations (would cause crashes when attacking or loading a save), but it's pretty trivial to do with thrown weapons (axes, darts, daggers...). You don't even really need to debug the game or understand ASM, it's just some creative application of --strfind and grep.

COPY ~bgmain.exe~ ~bgmain.exe~
	PATCH_FOR_EACH offset IN 0x0029C33D 0x0029C361 0x0029EF0E 0x0029EF33 BEGIN
		PATCH_IF BYTE_AT offset != 0x75 THEN BEGIN
			PATCH_FAIL ~%offset% != 0x75~
		END
		WRITE_BYTE offset 0xeb
	END

/* for posterity, offsets to allow dual-wielding launchers and weapons
	PATCH_FOR_EACH offset IN 0x0029C699 0x0029C6BD 0x0029F25B 0x0029F280 BEGIN
		PATCH_IF BYTE_AT offset != 0x75 THEN BEGIN
			PATCH_FAIL ~%offset% != 0x75~
		END
		WRITE_BYTE offset 0xeb
	END
	
	PATCH_FOR_EACH offset IN 0x0029C5D1 0x0029F1A2 BEGIN
		PATCH_IF BYTE_AT offset != 0x74 THEN BEGIN
			PATCH_FAIL ~%offset% != 0x74~
		END
		WRITE_BYTE offset 0xeb
	END
*/

As usual, weapon styles proficiencies aren't taken into account when using ranged weapons... which is actually good when dual-wielding, since it means that you don't lose THAC0 if you lack points in two weapons style (normally, it means you lose AC, damage, or critical chance). Also, your off-hand still makes an attack (which would be a ranged Vorpal from the Axe of the Unyielding) and receive the bonuses from the off-hand weapons (incl. extra attack with the primary weapon from Belm, strength from Crom Fayer).

EDIT: in case you don't know me (or it wasn't otherwise blatantly obvious), I only did very limited testing (equipping and unequipping, some quick attacks, load and save). Don't assume this to work perfectly (in addition to my note above regarding style proficiency and ranged attacks).

Edited by the bigg, 24 August 2011 - 12:53 PM.

[DrAzTiK]

Ok I have try a little bit and it seems to work like you said.

My first intention was not to simulate a Dual wielding launchers, so I am not very kind of having +1 Apr from off hand weapon when I use a ranged weapon. But the concept looks credible maybe so I can live with that. ( and I will try to not abuse of any vorpal effect..)

Hope someone will have the time to work more on this one day but it's already a nice addition for me.


Do you think that the +1apr from off hand can occurs if a dual wielding character cast Melf minute meteor ?

thank you

[Aranthys]

The +1apr does occur if a dual wielding character casts melf, I've seen it.
Quite funny for F/M or F/T characters.

[dubh]

- Can some simple checks be added to stop stats, thief skills, etc. wrapping to zero when they exceed their maximum values (25 or 255)?

On to-do.

Has any progress been made toward implementing this fix?

Also, it'd be really nice to be able to buy/sell items quickly by holding some key and then clicking on an item a la Diablo II.

Edited by dubh, 03 September 2011 - 04:39 AM.

[cremo]

Hi there!

Congratulations for your project. it?s simply great to finally be able to bend some hard coded rules of the BG2+TOB engine, and it?s always nice to find someone that puts so much passion in something you also love.

Here is my wish-list. I hope to not repeat suggestion already discarded since ? even if I have ridden trough all the 19 pages of this post ? not only English isn?t my native language, but, also, scripting language is gibberish to me!

1. Someone who is attacked in melee on the flanks and, especially, on the back, should receive an AC malus (or the opponent a Thac0 bonus). This would give a lot more deepness to the tactical deployment of your units in the game.. since, even the main tank, will need to find some repair for his back: either a wall, a rock, a tree or another companion. I think the malus should be calculated percentage wise, in order to not let it become less important with AC improving. I think good values could be 20% AC Malus on the flanks and 40% on the back. If it's not possible to elaborate thi position wise (but i doubt it, since already backstab calculates enamy position) than at least it would be cool if non targetted opponents that are attacking a creature/Character receive some kind of bonus.

2. Target of a ranged weapon should receive an AC bonus if the projectile has to go through other beings (friendly or unfriendly). Same reason as above (but I think it will be a lot harder to script). This would make ranged combat much more interesting, pushing you and your opponents to find clear trajectories (as well as to cover your AC weak characters!) instead of simply expecting you will hit a mage covered by 10 mobs in a melee.

3. Using the defend button on a character should give that character an AC bonus equal to the shield bonus of the defender against ranged weapons. In this way the ?defend? button would actually find some use.. and it will be useful to cover your mage behind a shielded character.. especially if the latter has a good shield and, maybe, some ** in shield style.

4. Headgear should no longer absorb completely critical hits (rendering them kind of useless, since a 19-20 roll would hardly miss even the highest AC), but, instead, reduce their damage (which, anyway, should always be above from that of a normal hit). Also, different headgears should give different bonuses on this front: while now every headgear (From helms to Jansen googles, Ioun stones and Thieves hood) simply make any critical hit useless at the same way.. I think that while helms could reduce the damage of a 25%, a hood could maybe reduce it of a 5%, but janseen googles and ioun stones shouldn?t: simply let the scripter decide which damage reduction to adopt.

5.Enable weapons to have different critical chances and effects. Thus enabling to make 19-20X2 swords and 20x3 axes. To tell the truth I Think that the critical menace can already be modified by simply adding an effect to a specified weapon.. yet I think that the critical hit which deals double damage is hardcoded.. it would instead be nice to be able to mess with this value.. better if with a percentage value (so a scripter could decide that a critical hit could make something in between a x2 and a x3 for example).

6. let summoned/charmed creature move from an area to another: now a summoned/charmed creature won?t even follow you outside of a building within the same area! I think it?s totally possible since a familiar can follow you even if it?s summoned.

7. Enable to open the inventory of summoned/charmed creatures. Ok maybe, as a scripter, I wouldn?t enable to let you access a spider inventory.. but what about skeletal minions.. why can?t I give them magical weapons I have acquired? or why can?t I simply order a dominated being to give me an item he is equipping when he will be happy to throw himself against a dragon if I so asked?

8. Allow melee weapons to receive a thac0 bonus from dexterity instead that from STR. Could make a ?weapon finesse? feat with that.

9. Allow melee weapons to avoid using STR bonus to damage even if they use it for Thac0 (now you can only remove it both)

10. Casting spell messages should be given when a caster begins casting it, not when he has finished to do it. A lore check should be required to see if someone in the party can identify the spell.. otherwise the message should simply reveal that the wizard is beginning to cast an ?unknown spell?.

11. Make different lore check for identifying different things: I think 3 would be needed: ?alchemical lore? (to identify good potions from cursed ones and their effects) ? spell lore? (to identify scrolls and spells casted: maybe it could be divided between ?arcane lore? and ?divine lore?) and artifact lore (to identify magic equipment).

12. externalize and make different types of saving throws editable, so one could, for example, remove the 5 saving throws we currently ahve and put something like fortitude/will/reflexes.. making them linked, respectively, to constitution, wisdom, dexterity.

13. Avoidable random encounters (fallout like): let people with tracking feat be able to avoid non quest related random encounters. And/or it would be cool if in a random encounter enemy will wait a bit to spawn if someone has tracking in your party , giving you time to prepare yourself better. Better would be if this would be controllable with percentages.. so that, for example, someone could make stackable tracking feat that each give you a xx% to avoid and like 2 second each to prepare for enemy to spawn.

14. Enable endurance to contribute with STR to carrying capacity (I think that a sturdy dwarf should be able to carry around more stuff for a prolonged time than an all-nerves elf).

15. Allow characters (including main character) to go OVER -10 hp : In this way resurrection spells could work differently. I don?t like the idea of resurrection and, personally, I would simply like to consider them ?disabled? until they reach something like -30 (but best is always to let the scripter decide the value).. with different ?recover? spell that could make a char recover (like a 3rd level spell which lets you recover up to -10 while a 7th one needed for up to -30).

16. externalize turn undead so that we not only could edit how it works, but we could for example extend his effects to other creatures like elementals or animals (for druids) and maybe limit their usage per day (maybe already possible with a spell?)


Things suggested by others that I also fully endorse:

a. Scrollable HLA menu. I had the same idea about using the HLA menu to make a feat system and I?m already working on it.. yet had the same 24 feat limit bugging me (I was too thinking on making something dialogue wise as a turn-around.. I would be glad to work together btw!).

b. externalization of weapon styles so that scripters could for example edit them to make it that 2h weapons receive a % dmage bonus while OH weapons receive a % damage malus like in d&d 3e, since now DW is really OP in comparison to 2h which simply sucks.

c. D&d 3e damage reduction (e.g. -5 DR which will simply ignore the first 5 damage from damage type): this would really give use a good options for tanks.

d. editable toolbar: so we'll have less problems with a bard that wants to improve his thieving skills beyond pickpockets and so on (like allowing clerics to have a "defend button)

e. Chance to have ?sneak attack? a la IWD-HOW: meaning that, instead of backstab, you can choose your rogue to deal some extra damage. It was something like 1d6 every 3 levels.. but would be nice if we could mess with those values for balancing porpoises.

f. Adjust walking speed to be editable, since, IIRC, currently all the projects what wanted to work within the game rules on this aspect failed.. and I truly would love to slow a bit the pace at which char move in bg2.. since maps aren?t that huge and they really seem SMALL compared to what they were in bg1 thanks to slower speed!


Well, that?s all that comes up to mind.. for now!

Hope that something can be realized, but thank you in advance for your attention!

Edited by cremo, 03 September 2011 - 01:38 AM.

[Andrea C.]

Hi cremo,

I believe most things you suggested are D&D 3.0E, and would be more exhaustively addressed by Icewind Gate II (though I'm unsure it is still being worked on). Some of them may be just hands-down impossible, like #2 on your list (which I believe would be extremely difficult to implement at the very least, if not at all impossible). But then again, I'm no modder

[cremo]

IIRC Ice wind Gate has been discontinued due to limitations of the iwdII engine in relations to things like NPCS and such.
Thus I would be happy if these things could be realized withing the bg2+tob engine..
AFter all it's a wishlist isnt'it? or I can't wish for some 3e rules I like to be implemented?
I already knew some were very difficlut (like number 2) but i just suggested it: if it's doable and ascension likes it I hope he will realize it.. if he won't.. friends like before

Also many things (from headgear rules to summon rules) are in no way related to 3e and would totally improve the gaming experience in my opinion. So I hope to hear ascesion opinion on them

[Avenger_teambg]

Ac Vs. Creature (#219 or 0xdb) grants a constant 2 in the original engine. GemRB grants param3 (defaults to 2).

[GeN1e]

Dual wielding launchers (AKA slings) can't be done because there are no attack animations (would cause crashes when attacking or loading a save)

Can it? Shooting uses overhead animation, and overhead animation is already present in vanilla for one-handed melee weapons when held in offhand.

1. Someone who is attacked in melee on the flanks and, especially, on the back, should receive an AC malus

I think I'd like it. Backstab already checks for direction, so I presume it can be salvaged or extended further.

2. Target of a ranged weapon should receive an AC bonus if the projectile has to go through other beings

The result will not justify the effort.
First, the to-hit roll is made at the moment of launching the projectile (I guess that's what 0x18 in ARE's projectile header is for? Someone should investigate).
Second, the game's geometry only recognizes the selection circle's center as the creature, so a projectile's trail is doomed to pass only one out of twenty at best.

3. Using the defend button on a character should give that character an AC bonus equal to the shield bonus of the defender against ranged weapons.

There's a defend button in game? Ok, kidding.
But what if characters are far away from each other?

4. Headgear should no longer absorb completely critical hits, but, instead, reduce their damage

Customizable critical hit aversion is already in. I wouldn't add another "hardcoded" effect to headgear to replaced vanilla on
IIRC reduced damaged from crits isn't even within DnD 3, is it?

5.Enable weapons to have different critical chances and effects.

Would be nice, if possible. I suspect it'd take an opcode rather than a byte in a header.

6. let summoned/charmed creature move from an area to another

Scripting can cover most of it, I think. Afair we've planned to do it for Spell Revisions.

10. Casting spell messages should be given when a caster begins casting it, not when he has finished to do it. A lore check should be required to see if someone in the party can identify the spell.

Depending on feedback setup, game already tells when somebody begins to cast a spell.
Spellcraft check could be nice however.

11. Make different lore check for identifying different things

I foresee a trouble with "opcode vs header".

12. externalize and make different types of saving throws editable

Saves can be renamed just as fine... simply pretend that wands/polymorph aren't there.
Linkage to stats is interesting, though it already is covered by Galactygon's proposal to enable "effect / stat's value" tables.

13. Avoidable random encounters (fallout like): let people with tracking feat be able to avoid non quest related random encounters. And/or it would be cool if in a random encounter enemy will wait a bit to spawn if someone has tracking in your party

Use scripting.

16. externalize turn undead

Can be done without exe hackery - disable the turn button and add innates. I've already considered this exact possibility before.

Edited by GeN1e, 04 September 2011 - 04:10 PM.