8 replies to this topic

[temnix]

Some I've figured out, but a few I'm not sure about.

 

Instant/Limited, Instant/Permanent Until Death are clear.

 

What is Instant/While Equipped? And Delayed/While Equipped? Equipped what?

 

Delay/Permanent I think I understand, but how is Permanent different from Instant, generally speaking? Also suppose I want to apply a series of effects one on top of the other, like Transparency, for a smooth disappearance. So I would make the creature 5% transparent with the first, then delay another with 7% and so on, accumulating. I don't want them to run out, but I want all of them removed at once later when I do away with the spell. So, for a succession of effects like that I should use Delay/Permanent, yes? 

 

Limited After Duration I don't understand at all. There is only one field where I can enter duration, so if that field is used for the delay, where do I put the duration of the effect that will occur after? The same thing about the other two "after duration" types, only Equipped After Duration is even more mysterious.

 

Instant/Permanent had me confused at first, I didn't see the difference with the basic Instant/Limited, but it turned out to play the effect every round. I think that's what it does, at least - I had it used only once with Play Visual Effect, and it kept firing it round by round until the spell ran out. So permanence conveniently terminates itself here. If this really is how it works, it could be very useful. Have you used it? Can you confirm this?

 

Instant/Limited (ticks) - well, how big, I mean how long are those ticks?

 

Absolute Duration - this seems self-explanatory, I know it's in seconds. It works smoothly, so I suspect some kind of sinister surprise or downside. Right?

 

 

[The Imp]

Well, you probably used an editor...  here's another view of the .spl feature block.

What is Instant/While Equipped? And Delayed/While Equipped? Equipped what?

Item. Duh.

 

Instant/Limited (ticks) - well, how big, I mean how long are those ticks?

If you play at normal speed, aka 30 FPS, that's 15 ticks per second. So 900 is a real time minute. But I am not sure that even works.

See most of these are not in general use. That's why the ? all over them in iesdp.

 

Instant/Permanent had me confused at first, I didn't see the difference with the basic Instant/Limited, but it turned out to play the effect every round. I think that's what it does, at least - I had it used only once with Play Visual Effect, and it kept firing it round by round until the spell ran out. So permanence conveniently terminates itself here. If this really is how it works, it could be very useful. Have you used it? Can you confirm this?

Well, if it's the 9; No. What you experienced was definitely not how it actually works, your animation might have ended... but the effect is permanent. And you can't dispel or revert it as, unless you do it specifically.

 

but how is Permanent different from Instant, generally speaking?

The "Permanent" ones(if you read what they are in the iesdp) do not take the duration, aka the number at offset 0x000e into account. Which makes them usually "permanent". As the .cre gets altered.

 

Limited After Duration I don't understand at all.

Can be used for say at casting effects(.eff file) with opcode 272. The eff has the duration, and the spl has the duration after which the .eff's are casted.

 

Absolute Duration - this seems self-explanatory, I know it's in seconds. It works smoothly, so I suspect some kind of sinister surprise or downside. Right?

Yep, it was coded 10 years after the game was done. Aka it only works in the EE games, after one of the patches(and perhaps in BG2ToB with ToBEx).

[temnix]

I used Near Infinity, things look somewhat different there. I'll test a couple of these options, but thanks for the explanation. The ticks - I'll have to try those. It's a good way to have durations of less than a second. By the way, is there any other way to split durations further? Apply at 0.5 seconds and so on?

Edited by temnix, 09 August 2016 - 08:28 AM.

[Fiann of the Silver Hand]

No, staggered effects are the pain in the ass you are experiencing. At least if you're doing this for EE, you will be able to remove them all at once using the RemoveEffectByResource opcode.

[temnix]

I am doing this for EE, but I would like the mod to be compatible with other game versions, like the Trilogy. Is there another opcode that can substitute for RemoveEffect?

[Fiann of the Silver Hand]

No, but you can use a custom Secondary Type (sectype, usually). Rogue Rebalancing uses this method.

[temnix]

What is a Secondary Type?

 

Confirmed: ticks work. But durations under a second set to 1 second. I can't say if fractions of a second are possible at greater durations.

Edited by temnix, 11 August 2016 - 06:22 AM.

[The Imp]

What is a Secondary Type?

From here:

Every spell has a school (divination, transmutation, etc.), a secondary type (a rough description of what a spell does, used internally by the engine), and every individual effect of a spell has a power level (power is essentially the spell level applied individually to each effect; item effects are generally zero).

It's a flag in the .spl files header offset 0x0027 ... the library that it's based on is the msectype.2da -file. But really itself does nothing, but the other .spl files use the flag as an operator character, aka a spell looks for spells that have the flag set and does what ever it was programmed to do when they have it(remove them for example).

Edited by The Imp, 11 August 2016 - 05:54 AM.

[temnix]

Oh THAT secondary type. I know that one. His name's Pete.