16 replies to this topic

[Shambelle]

Just a question:

Do you think there is a way to add the description for the spell like abilities ?
The different icons are in the game and Chris Avellone gave their descriptions in the past.

Edited by Shambelle, 26 December 2008 - 07:27 AM.

[Qwinn]

Where would you suggest these descriptions be put? Given that they only exist in-game as small icons on the wheel that you click to actually activate them?

Qwinn

[macabroid]

Where would you suggest these descriptions be put?

The most logical place for them is in the spellbook. Maybe it's possible to introduce another "0" level of spells with the title "Spell-like abilities", accessible when you click on a left arrow button on a 1st level spells. From there, it's logical to show description on a right click on a corresponding spell.

But please don't be bothered with that if you have more important things to do. This is a minor improvement, and besides it'd be pretty hard to implement, I suppose.

[Qwinn]

Problem with that idea is, if you're a fighter or thief, the spell book screen is "grayed out".

Ditto trying to look at Skull Mob and Taunt in Morte's spell book. He doesn't have one.

And no, no worries, it's not a priority for me and I'm honestly uninclined to do it, but I figured I'd respond as I did because maybe someone will come up with a magic bullet easy answer that is easy to implement. Kinda doubting it tho.

Qwinn

[macabroid]

Problem with that idea is, if you're a fighter or thief, the spell book screen is "grayed out".

But maybe it's possible to enable right click and navigation by arrows for grayed out spellbook. It may be even useful - for example for TNO who became fighter or thief, why he can't look at his spells?

It was just a remark to clarify my initial idea, I also personally think it's hard to implement and not worth the effort.

[Kung Fu Man]

Kinda tangental, but is there any way to soften up how hardcoded the distribution of these is. Currently who gets what abilities is completely dependent on that character string solely.

[Qwinn]

I'm not sure that's true. A character in PS:T is given an ability with a command like this (as an example):

ApplySpell(Protagonist,SPECIAL_ADD_SENSORY_TOUCH)

Maybe there's something that prevents changing, say, "Protagonist" to "Morte" in that line, but if so I'm unaware of it.

Qwinn

[Kung Fu Man]

I thought so too back when I was first playing around with this, but it doesn't. Add this to PCNAME.BCS and then load a game with Morte and Dakkon in the party:

IF
HotKey(K)
THEN
RESPONSE #100
ApplySpell(Protagonist,SPECIAL_ADD_SENSORY_TOUCH)
ApplySpell(Protagonist,SPECIAL_ADD_KISS)
ApplySpell("Morte",SPECIAL_ADD_SKULL_MOB)
ApplySpell("Dakkon",SPECIAL_ADD_SKULL_MOB)
END

When you press K, the following will happen: Nameless will get Sensory Touch, and Morte will get Skull Mob, showing that the triggers are being processed. However Nameless won't get Grace's Kiss, and Dakkon will get no innate abilities either.

You might think that it's something in the spell giving the ability then, but it doesn't seem to be. Open a savegame in NearInfinity after Nameless has Raise Dead, then change all instances of SPIN108 to SPIN107 (Grace's Kiss) for his character. When you fire up the game...the ability won't show. Adding to this, if you do a quicksave after testing the above script bit you'll see the abilities are in the CRE file, just unusable.

In the EXE too there's a series of strings with the innate ability spell names...been ages since I modified them, but I'd bet you you tweak them you'll find they affect this stuff. So yeah, for some reason...they hardcoded these rather than let the CRE handle them o_O

[Kung Fu Man]

Sorry if I caused offense by pushing this...would a save game illustrating that help in this regard? I can toss it right up.

[Qwinn]

No offense at all taken. I have no reason to doubt what you're saying, so yeah, sounds like there's additional hard coding under the hood. Does sound like a difficulty for your Vengeance project You can still have alternate thief characters, I hope, and they're not prevented from access to thief skills?

My lack of response was just from not having anything of further use to add, I'm afraid.

Qwinn

[Kung Fu Man]

Believe it or not...it's the same case. TNO as a Thief or a character with Annah's string are the only ones that can have thief abilities. These bits coupled with the whole equipment slot issue I mentioned in a previous thread has led to a real fun bundle of "fitting square peg into round hole" moments, that's for sure.

[Kung Fu Man]

Aye, it seems like something that could easily be modified, but I worry it'll be a little tricky too. Stories-Bones-Tell for example special treatment by the engine in that it won't deplete and require resting even if another spell replaces it (as far as I can tell with my testing anyway). If that is the case scient or whoever modifies the EXE would probably be best to check all the old abilities to make sure they still function like they should.

[Qwinn]

Does the SBT special ability actually -do- anything? I'd be surprised if it did. It may have been intended to actually work via the engine at some point, but the way it wound up at release, it's entire effect seems to be in dialogue only and activated by a single variable. So the special ability can't really do anything (since the variable is permanently turned on at the same time you get it), and the only thing I can imagine the spell doing is temporarily turning that variable on.

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 11 July 2009 - 11:35 PM.

[Kung Fu Man]

Truth be told I don't think it does *anything*. It looks like they wanted to make it pretty and all, but using it just results in a fizzle-fest.

I did some fiddling in the EXE though and found what gives it infinite uses is apparently separate from the main who-gets-what-ability coding. In the EXE you'll find the following:

SPIN108 SPPR502 SPIN101 SPIN103

The first two are for determining if the spell will work when targeting a corpse, which is how I found this. If you fire a spell on a dead party member and it doesn't have one of those two for the names, it won't fire.
The second part is what keeps Litany of Curses and Stories-Bones-Tell respectively having infinite uses. You can change those two in the EXE to prevent this or make two other spells have infinite uses.

Well that sorts out that issue, now just to figure out what controls the who-gets-what bit.