Suggestions for the coming release Options

[SparrowJacek]

Good news, most items and abilities are already fully functional for Assassins. My Todo list is also getting smaller, so soon I'll be able to proceed with my playthrough and improve/rework more encounters

[pekkae]

need a hand with it?

I might have time to do a few battles etc.

[SparrowJacek]

Thanks! Having a veteran IA player test and provide feedback to some fights would be very helpful. However there are quite a few half-finished elements that I'll have to sort out first.

[Berzerkerzz]

Prince in the Kuo-Toa Dungeon spawns the creatures clumped next to him and you can't even see them. It should look more like this, Mage and Cleric in the corners and the two Monitors in the middle. Ideally with some visual effect added and perhaps for the Dukes that spawn near PC as well.

This post has been edited by Berzerkerzz: Mar 23 2025, 07:21 PM

Attached File(s)

 KuoPrinceSpawn.jpg ( 106.84k ) Number of downloads: 5

 

[Berzerkerzz]

Vampire Lords (S!Vlord) script is missing some entries and is not executing some blocks, those checking for scriptingstates and certain items on PC. His allegiance is neutral.

Allegiance(Myself,ENEMY)

This is what is missing right at the beginning of the blocks, but maybe it's by design.

[critto]

I don't have access to the game right now to check, but my instinct is to take a better look at what role does that particular creature file fulfil. Sometimes creatures are used as a narrative device (for a cutscene or something) and not an actual enemy. Sometimes there are external circumstances that affect the creature. It is very probable that the allegiance of this particular creature changed to ENEMY in a different place such as an area script.

While I do not completely discard the possibility of a bug, something like that in an ubiquitous enemy type would probably have come up in testing or players' reports.

[Berzerkerzz]

I don't have access to the game right now to check, but my instinct is to take a better look at what role does that particular creature file fulfil. Sometimes creatures are used as a narrative device (for a cutscene or something) and not an actual enemy. Sometimes there are external circumstances that affect the creature. It is very probable that the allegiance of this particular creature changed to ENEMY in a different place such as an area script.

While I do not completely discard the possibility of a bug, something like that in an ubiquitous enemy type would probably have come up in testing or players' reports.

Well he has a dialogue so that's why he is Neutral, but those blocks don't run because it's missing that particular condition. Now this could perhaps be intentional because another Vampire Lord(Guarded Compound I believe) is missing those blocks completely, which just means somebody decided he shouldn't be as intelligent for that particular encounter.

[critto]

Okay, so I got curious and installed the mod to take a look at it. Can't see anything wrong with S!vlord.bcs, every relevant code block that is related to combat AI has the alignment check in place to become active when the creature turns hostile (which it does through its dialogue).

Unless I misunderstood something in your explanation, everything should work as intended. Please copy a complete code block that has an issue for comparison. This way, I'll be able to give a better comment.

This post has been edited by critto: Apr 4 2025, 12:41 PM

[Berzerkerzz]

Okay, so I got curious and installed the mod to take a look at it. Can't see anything wrong with S!vlord.bcs, every relevant code block that is related to combat AI has the alignment check in place to become active when the creature turns hostile (which it does through its dialogue).

Unless I misunderstood something in your explanation, everything should work as intended. Please copy a complete code block that has an issue for comparison. This way, I'll be able to give a better comment.

It only appears in v7 perhaps, not in the latest Master release.

[critto]

Well, here's the history of changes for that particular file: https://github.com/critto-bg/ImprovedAnvil/...S!vlord.baf

The latest edit was last year in February, prior to the release of v7, and it was a very minor one. In fact, all of them were, and the first logged change in the whole history of the repo was the file simply being moved to a different folder in 2016.

Also checked Sibel and IA Tweaks to make sure they aren't modifying this particular file in any way.

Perhaps you have some other mod that applied those changes on top, or maybe it is a side effect of your recent experiments (you've been doing plenty of interesting tweaks judging by the other thread).

[Berzerkerzz]

Well, here's the history of changes for that particular file: https://github.com/critto-bg/ImprovedAnvil/...S!vlord.baf

The latest edit was last year in February, prior to the release of v7, and it was a very minor one. In fact, all of them were, and the first logged change in the whole history of the repo was the file simply being moved to a different folder in 2016.

Also checked Sibel and IA Tweaks to make sure they aren't modifying this particular file in any way.

Perhaps you have some other mod that applied those changes on top, or maybe it is a side effect of your recent experiments (you've been doing plenty of interesting tweaks judging by the other thread).

You are right I played with that file and did a bunch of tests initially and even though I uninstalled/reinstalled, it was left in the override folder. I have two installs now and only in one it shows up indeed. Sorry about that.

[critto]

No worries. It is best to avoid editing files directly inside the override folder, especially when you make a lot of changes (which seems to be the case here). It is better to modify stuff inside the mod's folder and then do a reinstall. This way, you will not pollute the override with leftover changes.

[morpheus562]

I wanted to throw out a suggestion regarding Dragons' wing buffet spell as the current/vanilla version is bugged. Currently if the wing buffet opcode is attached to a spell that starts with "sp", as wing buffet does (spin695.spl), and it is cast on a creature with positive magic resistance, then the whole wing buffet spell doesn't work. To correct, you can have the vanilla spell cast a subspell that starts with something other than "sp", or you can create a new wing buffet spell that doesn't start with "sp" and your scripts will cast.

This post has been edited by morpheus562: Apr 9 2025, 05:49 AM

[SparrowJacek]

I wanted to throw out a suggestion regarding Dragons' wing buffet spell as the current/vanilla version is bugged. Currently if the wing buffet opcode is attached to a spell that starts with "sp", as wing buffet does (spin695.spl), and it is cast on a creature with positive magic resistance, then the whole wing buffet spell doesn't work. To correct, you can have the vanilla spell cast a subspell that starts with something other than "sp", or you can create a new wing buffet spell that doesn't start with "sp" and your scripts will cast.

Good to know, thanks! Sounds like a very weird and specific bug...

[Berzerkerzz]

No worries. It is best to avoid editing files directly inside the override folder, especially when you make a lot of changes (which seems to be the case here). It is better to modify stuff inside the mod's folder and then do a reinstall. This way, you will not pollute the override with leftover changes.

Thanks, good to know.
It was actually Bodhi that had those Allegiance entries missing at each block, but she is ENEMY so I guess it doesn't matter.

This post has been edited by Berzerkerzz: Apr 9 2025, 02:37 PM

[SparrowJacek]

My progress on the new version of IATweaks is good, though all new/reworked encounters take some time. But today I wanted to announce that Specialist Mages will also be impoved. B=>M is more useful than any pure Mage Specialist apart from Necro protagonist and a Wild Mage, so all other specialists got a few improvements. Here are just 3 examples:
For Abjurer:

Abjuration Mastery
With this power a skilled Abjurers can cast any spell of their favored school bypassing the need to cleanse their aura. The chosen spell is uninterruptible and does not need to be prepared in advance. This grants Abjurers an unparalleled edge in battle, allowing them to summon protective and dispelling magic at a moment's notice.

The potency of this ability grows with the caster's experience:

At level 12: Cast spells up to 4th level
At level 14: Cast spells up to 5th level
At level 16: Cast spells up to 6th level
At level 18: Cast spells up to 7th level
At level 20: Cast spells up to 8th level
At level 22 and above: Cast any mage abjuration spell

For Diviner:

Glimpse of the Future
This ability targets any single friendly creature without requiring the caster's aura to be cleansed. It sends visions of numerous potential futures to the target, providing insight on how to avoid or mitigate impending danger. The target gains a +20 bonus to all saving throws for 3 seconds or until hit by any spell or physical attack.

For Transmuter:

Blinding Speed
This special spell makes the caster so fast, that he can traverse long distances in a blink of an eye, if there are no obstacles in his path. In addition, the number of attacks per round is doubled and this spell can't be dispelled. It lasts for 5 rounds.

Those are just a few examples of new changes, I tried to make them unique and fitting for specific spell school.

[Berzerkerzz]

My progress on the new version of IATweaks is good, though all new/reworked encounters take some time. But today I wanted to announce that Specialist Mages will also be impoved. B=>M is more useful than any pure Mage Specialist apart from Necro protagonist and a Wild Mage, so all other specialists got a few improvements. Here are just 3 examples:
For Abjurer:

Abjuration Mastery
With this power a skilled Abjurers can cast any spell of their favored school bypassing the need to cleanse their aura. The chosen spell is uninterruptible and does not need to be prepared in advance. This grants Abjurers an unparalleled edge in battle, allowing them to summon protective and dispelling magic at a moment's notice.

The potency of this ability grows with the caster's experience:

At level 12: Cast spells up to 4th level
At level 14: Cast spells up to 5th level
At level 16: Cast spells up to 6th level
At level 18: Cast spells up to 7th level
At level 20: Cast spells up to 8th level
At level 22 and above: Cast any mage abjuration spell

For Diviner:

Glimpse of the Future
This ability targets any single friendly creature without requiring the caster's aura to be cleansed. It sends visions of numerous potential futures to the target, providing insight on how to avoid or mitigate impending danger. The target gains a +20 bonus to all saving throws for 3 seconds or until hit by any spell or physical attack.

For Transmuter:

Blinding Speed
This special spell makes the caster so fast, that he can traverse long distances in a blink of an eye, if there are no obstacles in his path. In addition, the number of attacks per round is doubled and this spell can't be dispelled. It lasts for 5 rounds.

Those are just a few examples of new changes, I tried to make them unique and fitting for specific spell school.

Those are some good ideas. Is the basement movement rate of 9 for all creatures hardcoded or could that be changed? I think the game would look better if the characters wouldn't move so fast, particularly under haste. Feels a bit unnatural how they traverse distances so fast, especially those thieves that have more than 18 movement rate.

[SparrowJacek]

Is the basement movement rate of 9 for all creatures hardcoded or could that be changed? I think the game would look better if the characters wouldn't move so fast, particularly under haste. Feels a bit unnatural how they traverse distances so fast, especially those thieves that have more than 18 movement rate.

Hmmm... Movement speed is incorporated into animation files (.ini), you can look for 0xXXXX.ini and "move_scale" parameter. But Haste effect just doubles the value anyway, so you'd have to apply a penalty to movement speed whenever a creature is hasted. This however is very hard to do properly, as there is no way of linking the penalty directly to HASTE status, you can only apply some spell once per second, that would check if a character is hasted and if so, apply the penalty for 1 second.

EDIT: if for some reason there is no .ini file for creature animation, or no move_scale parameter, then you might find the value in extspeed.2da. And a few animations (.ini files) are hardcoded and editing of the file does nothing. Though that's mostly for Dragons and maybe some other large creatures.

This post has been edited by SparrowJacek: May 6 2025, 05:15 PM

[Berzerkerzz]

Is the basement movement rate of 9 for all creatures hardcoded or could that be changed? I think the game would look better if the characters wouldn't move so fast, particularly under haste. Feels a bit unnatural how they traverse distances so fast, especially those thieves that have more than 18 movement rate.

Hmmm... Movement speed is incorporated into animation files (.ini), you can look for 0xXXXX.ini and "move_scale" parameter. But Haste effect just doubles the value anyway, so you'd have to apply a penalty to movement speed whenever a creature is hasted. This however is very hard to do properly, as there is no way of linking the penalty directly to HASTE status, you can only apply some spell once per second, that would check if a character is hasted and if so, apply the penalty for 1 second.

EDIT: if for some reason there is no .ini file for creature animation, or no move_scale parameter, then you might find the value in extspeed.2da. And a few animations (.ini files) are hardcoded and editing of the file does nothing. Though that's mostly for Dragons and maybe some other large creatures.

Alright, it was just an idea. What I did to slow down some creatures, like Minotaurs and Mind Flayers, is gave them a pair of boots that sets their movement rate to around 6 and then also haste (improved and normal), so around something like 12 movement rate which seems pretty fluid to me so far. I made about 6 different boots, range starting at 4 movement rate up to around 7, and then variations with haste and improved haste.

[morpheus562]

I have been in contact with Der_Wollschwein, and here is a working dracolich animation for you all to use.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/djsjpx0gnzdy...93mayx&dl=0

Attached File(s)

 Baldr000.png ( 110.75k ) Number of downloads: 13