Status Report

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That's certainly an option, and possible, Mudde.


I just finished the Fields of Slaughter and entered the Severed Hand. I wiped out Saablic Tan and his gang waaaaay easier than I expected, largely due to a perfectly good cleric spell that I've always overlooked ... Tremor. I thought that I'd give it a try for yucks, instead of the tried and true Mass Heal or Symbol of Hopelessness.

HOLY CRAP! Tremor is one heck of a spell! The damage it causes is no big deal, but it forces enemies "within sight" (seems a bit shorter than that) to make a Reflex save or fall unconscious for 3 rounds. And Slayer Knights are NOT immune to it. Damn! I knocked out ALL of Saablic's tanks and proceeded to pump up my Power Attack to the max and started hacking them to death. The only mistake I made was that I forgot that there was a SK in the bunch and didn't focus on taking him down. Saablic himself didn't last very long. A Delayed Fireball and a Flame Strike burned him to a cinder in really short order.

I'm going to HAVE to remember to give Tremor more respect. It's as much of a battle turning spell as many others. I'm thinking that it could be a REALLY nasty spell in HOF, although it would help to have a lot of summons to help with the post-Tremor hacking when you have a mob of tanks. The one downside to Tremor is a slow casting spell, requiring 1 full round, but it's really worth the wait.

Another spell that I got some surprising value out of is Shroud of Flame. Not really anywhere close to being my favorite spell, by any stretch. But in the fields of slaughter in the middle of the area against the mob of undead (Cold Bones, etc.) I used SoF and it was Mahhhhh-velous, particularly since I used my own undead to engage in melee at first and minimized the risk of my own tanks getting hit by the SoF. Then in the very next battle against the mob of Dread Orcs and Dread Elves who are fighting each other, I cast SoF on them and watched them burn each other with glee.

I've also found that the Vitrolic Sphere is a surprisingly decent spell. I've never used it before, but I've been trying out different spells and gave VS a shot. it's a great spell to use against low Dex types of targets, particularly ones that aren't in melee that you might not be ready to concentrate on yet, or against enemy mages. And remember that VS does 1d4 per level (max 12) and also does additional damage in suceeding rounds; -2d4 off the initial attack until all d4's are expended. That is, a 12th level VS does 12d4 on the initial attack, 10d4 on the second round, 8d4 on the third round, and so on. That actually adds up to some nice damage, and has the potential to disrupt any spellcaster for the duration. VS is not a godly spell, but it's actually nicer than people may give it credit.


On to another actual Status Report....

The new items are working well. Some are better than others. There are some surprises. Without revealing too many details, I put a REALLY nice +3 bastard sword in the Yaun-Ti Temple and I expected my "swordmaster" PC to really like it. However, it's turned out that another sword, a +3 longsword, that you get a little earlier, is even nicer. The bastard sword does more damage, but the +3 longsword has a "Blink while equipped" ability and it makes the wielder much more difficult to hit. The Blink spell causes an outright 50% of hits to miss, at the cost of 20% of your own attacks missing. In more general melees, I've had her use the bastard sword, but against nastier baddies, like the Guardian, I've had her use the Blinking LS cuz it makes her much tougher to damage. I do wonder if the Blinking ability is too good, but the flip side is that other than Blinking, the +3 LS is just a garden variety +3 LS.

The upgraded Holy Avenger... I really like it!!! My pally 2/Fighter X is now using it, although I did forget the stat minimums and had to give her the Every God ring to get her above the min WIS.


The new and upgraded armors are working out well. There's a very nice variety of armors for the descriminating tank.


Actually, as I was typing this up, it just occurred to me that there was a new armor that I was supposed to find in Dragon's Eye that I missed. I'll have to go back and see if I can find it or find out why not.

 

Cheers... keep me in mind, though.

 

cmorgan, I'm in the Severed Hand and don't have all that much left to do. Actually, I don't have any new items to obtain, because I didn't put any in the Severed Hand (in this revision), so I'm really just finishing for the fun of it.

All in all, the testing has gone rather well. A few glitches here and there. I probably should have used a mixed alignment party, so that I'd have access to ALL of the alignment-restricted new items... but it just didn't occur to me when I started.

For the most part, most of my new items are actually fairly straight forward and almost impossible to screw up, unless by accident. I do have a couple that I may want to tweak. I'm looking forward to finishing this revision, so that I can move on to the next revision.

 

Well, I've completed normal mode. Aside from my mod, I discovered one thing in particular in the final battle against the twins... Do NOT use the Tremor spell if you have the monks fighting on your side!!!! It doesn't affect the twins, but will knock out most of the monks and makes them completely vulnerable to the Twins.

After all of the monks had been killed and the Twins' defenses hadn't fallen yet, Isair got his "targeting scanners" locked onto my cleric and the only way to keep her alive was to have her running all over the throne room. It started looking like something out of an old Keystone Cops movie. She just kept running and running and running and Isair just kept chasing and chasing and chasing. All the while, the rest of my party was working over Madae, slowly but surely.

Eventually, I broke thru her defenses and the battle moved to its second phase where I dispatched the twins in a heartbeat.

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Mod Compatability Issues

I don't know about the compatability of my mod with the WW's Ease-of-Use mod, G3's IWD2 Tweaks mod, or Tal Rasha's Tactics mod.


G3 IWD2 Tweaks
IIRC, I suspect that there will be no issues with the G3 IWD2 Tweaks mod.


Ease-of-Use:
I am concerned that there may be some issues with the EoU mod since I do different things in certain areas than EoU. (Looking at the EoU READ-ME as I type this...)

* I would NOT install the forgotten armors/shields section of the EoU mod, since I've already included most of the forgotten armors and shield, and in different places.

* ABSOLUTELY, do not install the Improved or Greatsword Holy Avenger sections, as I have included my own (and very different) "improved" greatsword Holy Avenger.

* I wouldn't suggest using the "Stronger Bastard Swords" section. A) It's overpowered. And B) I've included a decent number of new, (hopefully) good bastard swords.

* I wouldn't suggest the "Randomized Treasure" section as it might screw up some of the changes that I've made to certain named items, causing them not to appear where intended.

Other than the above comments, I don't see any other compatibility issues.


Tal Rasha's Tactics mod
I've never played it, but I looked thru the mod's code. And I discovered that it's not really a WeiDU mod at all, at least in the normal sense of what a WeiDU mod usually is.

Tactics may play very well. I will not question that at all. But its compatibility with other mods is highly questionable because all of the changes were done by hand-editing of the actual ARE, BCS, CRE, ITM, etc. files.

I won't say to not try to combine Tactics and LOS. But I would say that you are doing it at your own risk. They may work fine together. Or not. For all I know, there may even be issues with trying to install one on top of the other. I just don't know at the moment.

To be honest, I hope that they are compatible, so that experienced players can get all the challenge that Tactics apparantly provides with all the new stuff that my mod adds to the game.


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A README File

I haven't written a normal TXT Readme file. OTOH, I have written a small HTML readme file that's included in the installation package.

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FYI, the entire ZIP file is about 672K (IIRC, about 1.7M uncompressed).

I suppose that I should say that my mod is "just" a Beta, as I don't have the patience right now to entirely replay the game another time or two, just for the sake of "testing". I'd like to move on to Rev 2.

About all I need now is a place for my mod to reside.

 

There is renewed interest in IWD and IWDII at G3. You may want to drop a line over there and see what it might involve (don't ask me, though, because it is a review process I haven't gone through, since I joined as assistant on already-in-progress works ). A line to CamDawg is probably in order. Right now work and betatesting for the next generation of IWD Tweaks is cleaning up; apparently a bunch of folks besides me has actually not fully played IWD or IWDII, and there seems to be interest in playing through both of them in anticipation of Domi's IWDII interactive NPCs. I suspect IWDII Tweaks is next on the order, so you would likely be welcome as an IWDII expert (there are not many folks who have worked through this code!).

 

Just being facetious, Taluntain.

I just sent my official submission email, after reading SP's submission guidelines page.

 

hmm, upon install i get an error:
"[SETUP-IWD2-EASE.TP2] PARSE ERROR at line 419 column 5-19
Near Text: ~00MACE01.ITM~
syntax error"

when trying to install...

maybe i should try to reinstall something?

always line 419 (like 10 errors)

going to try to reinstall my game and see what happens

 

Mindchild, let me look into it.

I used the most up to date version of WeiDU, but now that you bring this up, I've heard that the EoU mod's TP2 code may not be functionally compatible with the latest WeiDU TP2 code. ARGH!

Someone should take over ownership of the EoU mod, if for no other reason than to update its TP2 code to work with the latest WeiDU executable.


I didn't happen to see this problem because I used my own personal EoU file, not the much larger WW version.

Thanks for the notification. BTW, try loading LOS without EoU installed. It should install perfectly.

 

just installed on new install, same problem...lots of the same error for the same line:
ack...forgot to remove the tp2 and folder for ease X_X...hmmm lets try now
also get these:

the ease thing: yeah, i uninstalled then re installed iwd2 but the way the ease and such mods work is they see that its installed if its been installed before...had to delete it, but the other 2 are there still after ease was removed from the pic


well hey, i just proved *(or gave 2ndary test for) incompatibility with EoU

[ April 25, 2007, 05:34: Message edited by: MindChild ]

 

Mindchild, I always got the latter problem but the code always worked fine.

I've just got the "MACE01" issue after installing the latest (v15 from 2003) version of EoU, then installing LOS.


Have you tried installing LOS *without* EoU installed?

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Mindchild, I had a tough time uninstalling EoU myself, due to the frigging conflicting versions of WeiDU. But I figured out how to get around the problem


Go into the WeiDU.log file and delete any entry that is not related to the EoU mod. Basically, it's likely to be the last 2 lines in the file, if it's like mine. Also, the WeiDU exe that you use needs to be the old version 130 exe that was shipped with the EoU mod. You'll probably need to find it from the original Zip file. I luckily happened to have it installed in a second folder, jusdt for examination purposes, so I was able to copy it over without any problem.

Anyways, after you've cleaned up the WeiDU.log and have a v130 version of WeiDU for the Setup-IWD2-Ease.exe, now you should be able to cleanly uninstall Ease of Use. It worked for me.

I can't believe that no-one has updated the EoU mod's TP2 file. Regardless, if you need tweaks, try the IWD2Tweaks mod over at G3. It should cover most of the necessary things, like infinite stacks for ammo, etc.

I noticed over at Pocket Plane that they're apparantly taking over the BG2 EoU with WW's blessing. Now, if only someone would do the same for IWD2's EoU, if only to fix this compatibility issue.

Again... ARGH!

[ April 25, 2007, 05:36: Message edited by: crucis ]

 

a fresh install of iwd2 (with the deletion of files in the folder before install) works too...albeit a little more time consuming...gives me a chance to test my stuff on a fresh install without other mods


So...hows the balance of alignment and class restricted items...semi equal per class/restriction?

if not, please, spoil me, what combinations would allow me to experience the most this mod has to offer.

 

BTW, Mindchild, after completely uninstalling EoU as described above, I was able to successfully install LOS without problem.


Regarding the "See" Warning, as I stated before, you can ignore it. I wish I knew what was needed to make that go away, but it did not prevent those 2 NPC's dialogs from working. Furthermore, I lifted those "affected" dialog code fragments directly from other IWD2 dialog files and only changed the actual spoken dialog, not the SEE command.

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Let me think about that, Mindchild. Hmmmmmmmm...

Well, there are a fair number of both alignment and ability restricted items. While I actually kept a spreadsheet of (hopefully) all of the new items, I didn't keep a tab of which items had alignment or ability restrictions.

However, from memory, I'll try to give you a good idea where to go ...


First of all, it would be a "really good idea" to have a Good-aligned (aka a worshipper of Mielikki) human, elven, or half-elven ranger in the party who likes archery. The reason won't become apparant until you reach the Wandering Village.

If you choose to have a pally in your party, be aware that the Holy Avenger is now a) a greatsword, and b) is not for some wussy Sorc X/Pal 2 with a sorc's wussy STR. The HA's now a true paladin's greatsword with a STR minimum of 16 and a WIS min of 12. You have to be true to the faith to wield this Holy Avenger. No paladin wannabes.

Hmmmm, let's see.... There's a rangers/druids only set of studded leather (non-evil only). There's at least one set of good only and one evil only plate floating around.

I'm sorry, but my brain is a bit fried (it's 12pm here), so I'm not remembering everything. I'd say that if you had a well mixed party you would probably have access to most everything. There's only one new bards only item, a tunic in a store in Targos.

IIRC, there are a small number of items that are Lawful and some that are Chaotic, or perhaps non-lawful and non-chaotic. Sometimes, my items were very limited (as in only Good) and sometimes a little less so (as in just non-evil).

If I had a tendency, it was towards the good side of the Force. But that's not so say that there aren't some evil or non-good items to be had.

[ April 25, 2007, 06:15: Message edited by: crucis ]

 

thanks ^_^ working on party backstory, probably wont start playing till tomorrow

 

From the IESDP, IWD2 triggers:

So that should either be

See(object,0)

or

See(object,1)


it won't take TRUE or FALSE on a standard install. It might decompile that way on your install, reading FALSE for 0, but not on everyones


[sidebar]Sorry, Taluntain, I didn't think before posting - thank you for not pointedly reminding me that the conversation is on SP, which has its own hosting! I didn't think that clearly - just happy folks are modding this and wanted to help. SP is a great place to host the mod, and has a good open and supportive hosting policy (I looked it up!). [/sidebar]

 

Hey, thanks, cmorgan. I'm a little surprised that there isn't a IDS file that defines the values of TRUE and FALSE. I guess that I was so certain that TRUE and FALSE would simply *have* to be predefined values that it didn't occur to me that they weren't.


I'll make the fix in my source tree, and save your message as a tip. And thanks again for the help.

BTW, I think that it's rather ... interesting, that WeiDU will write TRUE or FALSE when it decompiles DLG files, but when you try to compile a D file to a DLG using the exact output from WeiDU, it pukes out a warning. Sounds to me as if a flaw in WeiDU.

 

I don't know... you mentioned that the dialogue worked fine, even though it threw the error, so it might very well be that TRUE/FALSE is actually defined in TRIGGER.IDS (doesn't look like it from the IESDP, but I am in new territory here), and just having trouble parsing it - it is definitely something to bring to "the bigg" on PPG, on the WeiDU subforum. the bigg inherited a wicked cool project, but a pretty complex one. There are bound to be a few glitches here and there - especially on an engine variant few have tried to mod. As more folks begin playing with modding the IWD2 variant of the IE engine, I bet we will find a bunch of stuff that needs adjusting.

Plus, if you used NI or DLTCEP, you might make sure that they were using the WeiDU parser, rather than the internal decompiler... WeiDU might not see it the same way NI or DLTCEP does.

The best way to approach the bigg with this (if it turns out that changing the FALSE to the integer removes the problem) is post the engine you are modding, the exact code used, the resulting error, and a request for information. His time is limited, so expect short, terse questions and responses (and you *want* it that way, because any questions take time away from him rebuilding WeiDU into a more effective and stable tool )

Good luck! I will definitely be among the users of your mod (though will have to wait for awhile after all; to many projects, not enough daylight).

 

cmorgan, already posted over in the WeiDU forum.

I used WeiDU itself to do my decompilations. (I actually wrote a little BAT file that includes the appropriate WeiDU command line, whenever I want to decompile a dialog.) So this warning "issue" is definitely a WeiDU thing.


BTW, I just noticed that Bigg replied to my initial post on the issue with a somewhat cryptic response that I found wholely unsatisfactory. It seems to me that a program that compiles and decompiles should absolutely be able to re-compile its own decompiled files without any error, warning, or user intervention.

 

Well, if the original compiled DLG is faulty and says "FALSE" instead of a number before decompilation, it is kinda hard to decompile it into something else. I believe that's what the bigg is saying.

(It may very well be that IWD2 takes anything invalid and uses it as a 0 as a default, however, so the See(FALSE) triggers work anyway)

 

Kudos for making the class fixes optional!

I may give them a try them later but for now I'm thinking about my next game with a new party and new shiny items.