While testers are performing the tests, I am also not idle and add things (and test them myself). So, if you see a new entry in the progress report, it doesn't mean that all previous features' tests are ended. The order of testing is not exactly the same as the order of entry numbers in the progress report thread. (Hey! Let me go and add #31 right now.)

Not sure where to place suggestions but this thread seems appropriate.

I was reading briefly on bioware forums and someone commented about the abundance of generic +3(+) weapons in the shop tavern in Saradush and how it breaks the sense of being "epic". I have to agree that it's jarring and breaks immersion seeing such powerful items being peddled in a random tavern outclassing the Adventure mart in Waukeen's Promenade in Athkatla! I think a case could also be made for the wandering merchant you meet in the ToB wilderness prior to the marching mountains.

I understand the original developers had those generic items there for players that jumped straight into ToB to outfit themselves. But for IA, if you solely start in ToB without doing the SoA portion, I highly doubt you have much of a chance. (level 20, party-less, no spell selection, and generic +2 gear? Maybe thetruth could do it? lol)

I suggest perhaps toning down the stock in Saradush to offer up to generic +2's. I do however believe it would be good to keep the unique items already available to these shops.

New IA player here. Just installed 4.2 to get a taste of things, and I like what I see so far. I don't want to get too far though, because of the new game req for 4.3. Keep up the good work guys, I'm looking forward to 4.3 and playing for real.

I have a little Spoilerish question. Mazzy's Improved sword (True sword of Arvoreen) is usable for another halflings too?

@JohnGalt

Welcome!

@trufa



No, it's just for Mazzy.

I have received more incompatibility reports between G3's BG2 Tweakpack and IA. It's tested and we confirm the report:

The "Rest Anywhere" component of the BG2 tweakpack is incompatible with IA and very badly so. I say "very badly" because it creates the sort of bugs which the player may hardly notice or recognize during the game. The game will be bugged without the player knowing that it's bugged. Fortunately, the entire BG2 Tweakpack is listed as incompatible in the readme of IA v4.3; so we don't need to worry about each component individually. As mentioned before, the original (Weimer's) "Ease-of-Use" can be safely used with IA. (Fortunately the original Ease of Use doesn't have a "Rest Anywhere" component (at least the version I use doesn't have such a component); if it had, it would be incompatible with IA too.)

I use version 27 of Weimer's Ease-of_Use and it doesn't contain "Rest Anywhere" component. It has 28 components. When I wrote in my previous post that the original EoU can be safely used with IA, my information was based on the version of EoU I have (v27).

However, I just checked and noticed that the newest version of "Ease-of_Use" (version 32) actually includes a new component (component no.29) which is "Rest Anywhere". This component (just like the one obtained from BG2 TweakPack) is incompatible with IA and should not be installed with it.

Hence, the summary is this:

G3's BG2 Tweakpack has several components which are not compatible with IA, so don't use it with IA at all. Use Weimer's "Ease-of-Use" instead but don't install the following components of it:
- "Component 3: Multi-Class Grand Mastery" (Not recommended)
- "Component 12: Multi-Player Kick Out Patch" (Incompatible)
- "Component 13: Invisible Cloak of Mirroring Animation" (Not recommended)
- "Component 14: Bottomless Bag of Holding" (Not recommended at all)
- "Component 20: Shapeshifter Rebalancing" (Not recommended at all)
- "Component 28: No Traps or Locks" (Not recommended)
- "Component 29: Rest Anywhere" (Incompatible)

What about avoiding Shapeshifter Rebalancing? Two resons: it messes with the gameidea (I guess) and it creates overpowered chars ie with the faldorn/cernd fight, and the beastmaster IMO

Thanks, Shaitan! I edited my post and added the complete list of EoU components which should not be installed with IA or are not recommended for various reasons.

I think I installed rest anywhere , what are the likely implications (I don't think I've slept anywhere too important; just like in taverns to save a few gold, and I think once in Keldorn's place)

I think this applies to ver. 4,3, but it must be fairly easy to uninstall without troubles

Stu,

The locations you mention will not have caused any problems - the incompatibilities arose when players rested in certain areas which contained enemies (which the mod does not expect players to rest in).

The incompatibility does exist in 4.2 as well. I would recommend that everyone just uninstalls this component of EoU.

i agree to this......

So do I.

It's done.

Some might be interested, but what about the Shapeshifter revisions component in Refinements (it can be installed separately from any HLA or any other changes done by other components in the mod)? IIRC it wasn't anywhere near as unbalanced as the version in EoU/BG2Tweak.

Btw, I like the idea of removing all the bloat of +3 weaponry in ToB. The mudflation of magical items as you went through the game always bothered me. For example, if Amn is somewhat anti-magic use, then why are there plenty of more powerful magical weapons than in the other major center in the area, Baldur's Gate. And then, why does some random hamlet in Tethyr have oodles of highly enchanted arms and armour.

As for the topic, how are the work progressing?

Regards

On the technical side, the Refs component doesn't alter any file that is altered by IA, or that is called by any file altered by IA (or at least it doesn't appear to do so after grep'ping and find'ing for both file names and IDS references in IA 4.2).
OTOH, it still alters the balance of the game in case the player casts it, meaning that an enemy's AI could be reacting in the wrong way to a morphed PC, which will rank as 'incompatible' in IA terms.

I think IA's item randomizer deals with this problem to a considerable extent. A good number of powerful magical items are picked from the stores (and from easy to find locations). Every time the player starts a new game, those items will be in new and randomly determined locations. So, in addition to its main purpose (which is "the player will no longer know every item's location by heart"), the item randomizer also deals with the problem you mentioned (= so many powerful items in stores in a city which is anti-magic use).

I agree to the fullest, but my curiosity is forcing me to ask if you have a guesstimate for time left before release at this point. Best wishes

I attached a new installation instructions document to this post. There was an incompatibility issue between the Chosen of Cyric Encounter component of Rogue Rebalancing mod and IA, which aVENGER and I managed to resolve it together, so you don't see that component among the incompatible components of RR anymore.

Also, the entry no.6 in the list of incompatible mods is very important:


Unfortunately, I don't have a complete list of mods which use detectable stats. It's quite probable that even some NPC mods may have/use it. Anyway, make sure to read the documentation of any mod you want to install with Improved Anvil and if you find detectable stats mentioned in it, don't install it with IA (and also report to me to add the mod's name to the list of incompatibles).

Also, see this post.

Edited to fix a typo

The code for this has been implemented and tested. It works perfectly and will be included in RR v3.81. For now, players should just follow these instructions and simply sell the offending items rather than use them. They won't crash your game or anything so drastic though, they are simply conceptually incompatible with IA, so Sikret and I worked out a solution which will make them unavailable to the player if IA is installed alongside RR.

BTW, Sikret, is the global variable you gave me also present in IA v4.2 (I assume it is)?

Can anyone tell what detectable spells/stats is more precisely?

I'm probably the least qualified person to answer that, but its when a script has code in it to make the enemy/creature selectively target member of your party who are vulnerable to a certain type of attack, and stay away from those with resistance. To do this the script checks the resistances and abilities of your party in order ascertain which member should be attacked. For example if such a script were applied to Firkrag he would not breath fire at anyone with fire resistance, but would at anyone who was vulnerable to it. This can be somewhat jarring and unrealistic if the creature ends up ignoring the otherwise normal looking ring-of-fire-resistance humanoid bashing into him with a mace to run to the other side of the map to try and breathing fire on some random mage, who may or may not being in the range of attack or blocked by physical objects.

Yes, it is.

@Shaitan

Stu's reply to your question is correct. As for the example he chose to elaborate the point, fire resistance is already a detectable stat in thevanilla game. The techinical problem which will lead to incompatibility occurs when a mod tries to add more other detectable stats to the game (the existent stats such as fire resistance are not problematic). Such a mod would need to modify one of the game's files called STATS.IDS, whereas Improved Anvil requires that file to remain intact and not modifed by any other mod. Moreover, mods which add new detectable stats to the game modify several spells in the game, while IA requires those spells to remain intact as well.

IA has its own detectable stats system which works in combination with its polygonal scripting method. Enemies in IA also check for your characters stats before performing some actions, though not in the unrealisitc way Stu (correctly) warned against. Moreover, different enemies with different levels of intelligence and experience use these methods in different extents and levels. (ex: a minotaur and a Lich are not assumed to be equally smart)

Ok thanks, but I don't suppose every mod write about detectable spells in it's readme. Can I somehow else get an idea if it alters the stats.ids?

Regards

It should be listed in the setup.tp2 I think.