287 replies to this topic

[Qwinn]

Time for a new bug report thread

Here's the Known Issue list, hasn't been fixed yet, will add a Fixed section when they are:

1) Ice Knife spell applies permanent +2 THACO debuff which stays on victim until victim dies and resurrects.
2) Aid spell (and presumably those that mimic its effect like the Embalming spells) don't increase current HP when cast on someone at full health.
3) Friends spell should not be cumulative with itself.
4) Exceptional strength issues, fixes postponed from v4

I'm thinking v5 is gonna have a lot of mage love, heh Don't be expecting -that- to come out for another solid year, tho. At least.

Qwinn

EDIT: Actually, look for a v4.1 to come out relatively soon, with a few dozen more fixes.

Edited by Qwinn, 20 January 2010 - 04:11 AM.

[nevill]

1) Maybe not a bug per se, but I'll report it nonetheless.

When talking with two fiends at the Smoldering Corpse Bar, after asking Tegar'in why shouldn't I keep a journal, Morte kicks in and I have two choices: either tell him that I want to ask them more questions or that I'm done with them. Both choices lead to the same state where Aethelgrin mentions Baator and asks me what other questions I had, which strikes me as odd in case of the second choice.

2) When you ask Dak'kon if he *knows* himself and he tells you he doesn't want to answer, you have an option which reads: "Perhaps I was too kind phrasing that as a question. Tell me." Should you be able to say this before you actually know that he is your slave?

Sorry if it was mentioned earlier.

Edited by nevill, 15 January 2010 - 12:05 PM.

[Qwinn]

1) Sonofabitch. I already made a bunch of fixes to those devil/Morte interchanges, and I found this one before v3 and I even mention fixing it in the Readme ("Additional dialogue fix to Morte's interjections when talking to Aethelgrin and Tegar'in. (Qwinn)") but somehow the fix just isn't there anymore. Got dropped somehow Curses! Adding back in, thank you.

2) I sorta see what you mean, but I don't think that's a clear enough bug to justify changing it. You can be a demanding jerk without knowing he *has* to obey you.

3) While researching this, I found a fix that I did incorrectly back in v3.0 (and didn't document at the time for some reason). It restores an interjection to Morte about Ebb Creakknees. It'll be fixed correctly in the next version.

Qwinn

[nevill]

I think almost all instances of "being a demanding jerk" to Dak'kon (especially the ones that lowered his morale afterwards) involved a variable check. Nevermind.

Mochai walking to the player to ask him for a drink was something you restored, right (she never did back when I last played this game)? In that case, wasn't she supposed to return back to her place at the table, because that's where the barman says she is at. Perhaps she shoudn't move at all and initiate a dialogue when you come by close enough?

P.S. Something I just noticed. When you first speak to her, she insists that you buy her a drink only if you ignore her and try to leave straight away. You can't buy her a drink if you actually decide to talk to her, though the option is present if you talk to her again later. Perhaps STATE 5 should look like something along these lines:

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN 5 // from: 2.0 1.0
SAY #10598 /* ~"Hey, cutter... buy a lady a drink?"~ */
IF ~PartyGoldGT(5)~ THEN REPLY #10638 /* ~"Very well. Here are five coins."~ */ DO ~TakePartyGold(5)~ GOTO 6
IF ~~ THEN REPLY #10639 /* ~"No. Answer some questions for me, instead."~ */ GOTO 7
IF ~~ THEN REPLY #10640 /* ~"No. Farewell."~ */ EXIT
END

Just saying.

Edited by nevill, 15 January 2010 - 12:55 PM.

[Qwinn]

I think almost all instances of "being a demanding jerk" to Dak'kon (especially the ones that lowered his morale afterwards) involved a variable check.

True, but for the record, the instances you cited above don't lower his morale Looking through those cases where the slave knowledge is checked, they're almost all quite explicit, either directly referring to him as a slave or making it obvious he can be coerced to do anything ("or I'll order you to kill yourself.") I don't think these are in the same league.

Mochai walking to the player to ask him for a drink was something you restored, right (she never did back when I last played this game)?

Hmm. I don't -think- so. I think that's original behavior. But I'll check.

EDIT: Yup, original behavior, I don't make any changes to her script at all.

Thanks for the reports, btw, keep 'em coming!

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 15 January 2010 - 12:26 PM.

[Qwinn]

I'm leaning toward agreeing with you. Not quite yet though, let's see if anything else shakes out over the next few hours. I think a stealth update within 24 hours of the release is acceptable.

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 15 January 2010 - 12:31 PM.

[nevill]

I'll try to get rid of my habit of editing the existing posts. Meanwhile, Qwinn, can you please tell me where I can find a decent utility for quickly checking the flow of dialogue? I used to check them with 'Infinity Explorer', but for some reason it doesn't show several conversations because of "Invalid TLK index -1" (I guess some new lines were added to these dialogues). And 'NearInfinity' is just not that useful for the purpose.

That would make finding and reporting bugs so much easier.

Edited by nevill, 15 January 2010 - 12:54 PM.

[Qwinn]

nevill:

Sure, the Mochai fixes you suggest are reasonable. Will see if I can get in for the stealth update.

Qwinn

[Qwinn]

Dunno what I can offer you as far as editors. I use Near Infinity and find it suitable for the purpose. In really complex situations I'll use weidu to turn it into a .d, but I suspect you already know how to do that.

Qwinn

[Qwinn]

Got the Mochai fixes done and tested, they'll be in the stealth update, which I'll probably do once an hour or two passes without a bug report. After this stealth update, no more... I'll either do a version revision or it'll just have to wait till v5.

Qwinn

[Qwinn]

I went ahead and did the stealth update to the fixpack now, so the non-engine fixes discussed in this thread are in.

Qwinn

[nevill]

Took a quick look at Mantuok's dialogue (I haven't made it to the Lower Wards yet). I think this deserves it's own thread. The dialogue still makes no sense. He still knows that Lothar has sent you on a quest without you telling him, he still doesn't block the way back from the Dead Warrens (more on this later if we agree that the dialogue needs changing) and that charming sequence of lines is still present:

Mantuok hisses at you again. "Begone, then, and return when the skull is in your hands." He pauses and looks at you suspiciously. "Have you a skull yet?"
"In fact, I do."
"And have you retrieved the particular skull the master wants?"
"I have a skull."
"Is it the one the master requested from you?"
"Yes."

And there is more. Much more.

I think I know why you wouldn't want to use the version I sent you (after all, there was quite a bit of questionable extras), but I think I can come up with something that wouldn't violate 'minimum change' rule and wouldn't be painful to look at at the same time. If you wish, of course. It will require at least 2 additional variables to keep track of what was said.

Edited by nevill, 15 January 2010 - 01:41 PM.

[Qwinn]

Sure, I'll take a look at it. I agree his dialogue in Lothar's basement is all kinds of ugly. But yes, minimum changes would be good on this. If it's just adding variable checks to close off inappropriate replies, I have no problem with that at all. I'd prefer not to add new dialogue though.

That said, I don't have -that- big a problem with the dialogue chain you quoted there. Yes, it's kludgy, but it requires the player choosing kludgy options. Choice and consequences!

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 15 January 2010 - 01:44 PM.

[Daulmakan]

I'm leaning toward agreeing with you. Not quite yet though, let's see if anything else shakes out over the next few hours. I think a stealth update within 24 hours of the release is acceptable.

For me it is. Or perhaps you could start a hotfix topic with the relevant fixes if you're concerned about updating the mod without changing the version number?

[Qwinn]

I already updated it, Daulmakan (points up 3 posts)

The hotfix idea would actually be more trouble than updating the whole mod at this point.

Qwinn

[Qwinn]

And nevill, just so you know... take your time on the Mantuok thing. That one can wait until v5. The dialogue is ugly and kludgy but it isn't outright -bugged- as far as I can tell, and I don't see it as worth its own revision or stealth patching.

Qwinn

[nevill]

Sorry not to mention it earlier. I thought my changes to 'dmooch.dlg' were lost in that HDD crash. But I've just found the file, and it turns out there is a pair of minor issues with her. Those are not bugfixes, just some suggestions to make dialogue look smoother.

First, the option to poison her leads to the STATE 16, which reads:

You swiftly pour the embalming fluid into her half-empty glass in the moment she's looking away. The stench rises immediately, but she doesn't seem to notice. She turns back around and downs her poisoned beverage in one swallow. "Um, what was it? What was I s'posed to see?" Suddenly, she begins choking.

regardless of which lines led to it. While coming from the line in STATE 14

IF ~~ THEN REPLY #10647 /* ~Distract her: "I could, but... what's that over there?"~ */ GOTO 15

it makes sense, it doesn't when it comes from other STATEs (now that you've replaced the 5th, only 7th and 13th remain), because there is no mention of Mochai being distracted (and you must make a DEX check to succeed).

Adding a separate STATE with these lines should do the trick:

IF ~~ THEN BEGIN xx // from: 13.0 7.6
SAY #yyyyy /* ~You swiftly pour the embalming fluid into her half-empty glass in the moment she's looking away. The stench rises immediately, but she doesn't seem to notice. She turns back around and downs her poisoned beverage in one swallow. Suddenly, she begins choking.~ */
IF ~~ THEN REPLY #zzzzz /* ~"Your should have paid that debt, Mochai."~ */ DO ~Kill(Myself)
DestroyPartyItem("Embalm", False)~ EXIT
END

But it requires adding two lines to 'dialog.tlk', something you are not fond of. I wouldn't even mention that if you hadn't changed Dhall's line about Sigil.

Second, and that is even less important, when you ask her to pay up, she tells you she's out of money and you can promise to pay up for her. Thing is, the game doesn't keep track of that promise (there isn't a variable for that) and the next time you talk to her and she asks what are you going to do, you have no option but to reply 'Ask you to go pay up. Now.' Even if you know she doesn't have a copper. Heartless bastard.

A single local variable can take care of this.

If you don't want me to post these suggestions and just post outright bugs, tell me. I know you can't fix every minor thing in the game that big.

Edited by nevill, 15 January 2010 - 03:18 PM.

[scient]

Well, I finally finished cleaning up my really messy notes about potential fixes and what not. These are only things left I know of which need fixing. Also, I included some of tweak suggestions and sound UB. Some of these bugs Qwinn already has workarounds setup for example with thief skill via dialogs to prevent rollover and certain instances of not giving alignment hits at all if particular NPC's die. But both of these really should be sorted in engine.

• bug: exceptional STR revision/overhaul -> one unified function to handle mechanic
  
• bug: when a thief skill or spell resistance becomes greater than 127 ("char"), it will roll over to negative -> either cap or expand to "short" (BG2)
  
  
• bug: "Ice Knife" spell -> can give -2 THAC0 effect until death when effect should be time limited
  
• bug: "Aid" spell -> incorrect hp when cast on PC with full health (also look at similar spells which manipulate hp like embalming)
  
• bug: "Fist of Iron" spell -> see if it's actually working, "to hit" isn't updated in profile when cast
  
• bug: "Friend" spell -> CHR bonuses stack when should act like "Luck" spell with queue system (one instance of spell in effect at a time)
  
• bug: "Infernal Shield" spell -> breaks fire resists by making them negative (stat roll over bug) so having oppposite effect (makes Ignus more susceptible to fire damage)
  
  
• bug: quick load crash -> existing problem somewhere with memory management
  
• bug: zoning via mini-map can (always?) cause some (all?) bcs scripts for area not to load (Clerk's Ward -> Drunken Mage floaty text not showing up) -> need to dig deeper into this
  
• bug: add check to prevent NPC's killing NPC's from modifying PC death globals (alignment hits due to Carceri citizens getting killed by NPC's)
  
• bug: "remove intoxication" (0xa4) effect is supposed to remove the intoxication effect (0x5e), instead tries to remove itself (0xa4) (reported by Avenger, see IWD2 for correct engine handling)
  
• bug/exploit: TNO mage spells can be used as fighter/thief due to flaw in quick menu -> bring up Dak'kon or Ignus's floating menu and then clicking "Select All" and then "Cast Spell"
  
• bug: some actions ignore spell pause, particularly spells which take long time to cast (NPC affected by "Litany of Curses", NPC with broken morale (fleeing), and Grace script to heal party members)
  
• bug/UI: display cumulative exp for area multi-kills (mainly spells such as "Cloudkill") rather than individual exp from last CRE killed
  
  
• UB: make up list mapping unused sound content for PC/NPC to suitable mechanics in engine
  
• UB: use ambient sounds from BG1/BG2 for things like doors/chests and the like -> make up list of potential mechanics to add sound in for
  
  
• tweak: add mouse scroll functionality to UI with scroll window (mirror IE code in game that has it working) such as dialogs, journal, etc.
  
• tweak: pressing TAB button to highlight chests/items/doors -> emulate BG2:TOB code
  
• tweak: ability to assign hotkey to skip spell animation (ESC? or one of F# keys?)
  
• tweak: LUA! LUA!

Here are some "points of interest" of areas in engine code I made a note to delve into deeper. Some cases there is possibility of bug, others I'm just curious how the mechanic works.

• double check stats other than thief/resists to make sure rollover aren't possible -> lore already resolved
  
• look into ini handling some more
  
• look into KYNAME -> "Protection from Creature Type" does what exactly?
  
• look into NPC AI (ObjCreatureAI.cpp) if anything can be done to improve pathing (Path Search Nodes)
  
• look into intoxication (INN1.STO), fatigue and other fringe/unused stats some more
  
• review all existing spells to make sure they're working as intended per description
  
• see if there are any "unused" spells left over in engine -> http://www.shsforums...showtopic=11319
  
• effects causing hp to go over max once they wear off leading to incorrect hp bar display as PC was damaged (yellow/orange vs green)
  
• NearLocation bug that certain level fighters (lvl 10) can cause script action to fail when using [PC] without attaching [x.y.400.-1] part of object. Why is this?
  
• additional sounds -> make notes for all sounds outside of PC/NPC (spells, ambient, equip, common NPC's, battle) and see if any are unused or typos (ala Nordom's "Removed From Party")

There is one bug which I need some more into hopefully from how D&D works or even how later versions of IE handle this situation (BG2, IWD2). There are only a couple of instances where this crops up but I'd curious about anyones thoughts on how to handle it.

• bug/exploit: cursed unusable items still give stat effects (is there any D&D info regarding cursed items becoming unusable while equipped?)

Here are a few points which aren't engine related, Qwinn already said he might be able to sort out DGHIVEF case already based on some other fixes. Same goes for spellkeys, he just has to come up with a clean way to offer them instead of just dumping them onto TNO (oh I hear you're going to planes, have some tattoos kthxbye).

• 0403GDUL.BCS -> not seeing response: "Me? How do I know YOU didn't do it, you four-legged dung heap!" -> problem is NPC can die before saying his line (very long time before response is fired off).
  
• DGHIVEF has dialog option where NPC is suppose to run away but stops and goes back to place after a few seconds
  
• add in spellkey items since engine mechanic works perfectly

If anyone can think of any bugs in engine I missed, please let me know so I can look into them. Or potential tweaks/UB depending how complex they are to implement.

Edited by scient, 16 January 2010 - 10:46 AM.

[Qwinn]

nevill:

1) I didn't replace state 5 the way you suggested. State 5 has something like 9 replies to it. I just added the option to buy her a drink to the original 9. Minimal changes.

2) I'm inclined to agree that the dialogue issue you point out with poisoning her needs resolving. However, even your suggested new line contains a reference to distracting her... "in the moment she's looking away." Frankly, a distraction is necessary given all the available dialogue lines. I'm thinking that a simpler way to resolve the issue would be to replace all the ~Poison her drink with the embalming fluid.~ lines with ~Distract her: "What's that over there?"~ and have them lead to state 15. Actually, state 15 should have the dexterity check that's present in all the other poison replies as well. An advantage to this method is that I don't need to call in the translators, since I can fairly easily figure out the translation myself from string 10647, just weeding out the "I could, but...".

3) Where are you seeing this option to pay up -for- her? I see the option to give her the money, which doesn't cause the problem you're talking about, but I don't see the promise line you're referring to.

Qwinn

Edited by Qwinn, 15 January 2010 - 06:15 PM.