172 replies to this topic

[Shaitan]

Beautyful.

Happy easter

[Daulmakan]

[aVENGER]

The Elemental Princes are almost done.

Chan's Wind Wall

I've found an interesting way to implement Chan's Wind Wall ability. It will protect her allies from gas-based spells which, in term, allows Chan to use her Cloudkill, Stinking Cloud and Solid Fog without worrying about hitting the party. The Wind Wall also stops all normal missiles and grants an AC bonus vs. enchanted missile weapons.

On a side note, looking at the screenshot, you may notice that the all PnP Elementals' special abilities use BG2-style icons by default. Also, Chan and Sunnis are now properly classified as female and refer to themselves as such (princess instead of prince).

[William Imm]

Nice. When do you want to release? I'm saying this considering that I really want to have those in my BGT game.

[aVENGER]

Nice. When do you want to release?

Pretty soon, possibly in a week or two. The actual coding of the component is almost done. However, I still need to do make the relevant BP/SCS/SR compatibility adjustments and perform some additional in-game testing.

I'm saying this considering that I really want to have those in my BGT game.

Thanks, I'm glad you like it.

[GeN1e]

The Refinements mod ships a very nice animation for (Greater) Whirlwind HLA, that you may want to use for Wind Wall.

[Salk]

aVENGER,

thanks for the update news. Much appreciated.

I guess Wisp is not yet back to work on aTweaks, uh? I am looking forward to this new PnP Elementals component but I must confess I've been even more eager to play the PnP Undead one...

[Wisp]

I guess Wisp is not yet back to work on aTweaks, uh? I am looking forward to this new PnP Elementals component but I must confess I've been even more eager to play the PnP Undead one...

Well, there have been minor developments on that front. Undeads have probably been untangled from Beholders (who are what is holding this train up). Assuming I have not forgotten anything unfinished in Undeads it should mainly be a matter of testing and some polish before I can release them. I will try to get some work done during easter, but no ETA.

[aVENGER]

It has been a while since I looked at the undispellable-magical-weapons hack, but it may be possible to set aTweaks up to make use of it if the user installs ToBEx on his own.

Just to confirm, this is now implemented. As long as TobEx is installed before aTweaks the weapons introduced by the new elemental shapechange forms will become undispellable.

// Add the non-dispellable flag to aTweaks' shapechange weapons if TobEx is detected
ACTION_IF FILE_EXISTS_IN_GAME ~tobex_ini/tobexcore.ini~ BEGIN                      // if TobEx is installed
ACTION_FOR_EACH ~file~ IN                                                          // for each of the following files
            ~rr#esher~                                                             // Earth Elemental shapeshift attack
            ~rr#eshfr~                                                             // Fire Elemental shapeshift attack
            ~rr#eshee~                                                             // Elder Earth Elemental shapeshift attack
            ~rr#eshfe~                                                             // Elder Fire Elemental shapeshift attack
            ~rr#eshsa~                                                             // Fire Salamander shapeshift attack
BEGIN                                                                              // execute the following
ACTION_IF FILE_EXISTS_IN_GAME ~%file%.itm~ BEGIN                                   // if the designated file with an ITM extension exists
COPY_EXISTING ~%file%.itm~ ~override~
  PATCH_IF (SOURCE_SIZE > 0x71) THEN BEGIN                                         // protects against invalid files
// =============================================================================== // the actual work starts from here
    READ_BYTE 0x1b "flags"
    PATCH_IF (("%flags%" BAND "0b00000001") = "0b00000000") BEGIN                  // if bit 24 isn't set
      WRITE_BYTE "0x1b" ("%flags%" BOR "0b00000001")                               // set bit 24
    END
// =============================================================================== // the actual work ends here
END                                                                                // ends file size check
BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES
END                                                                                // ends second ACTION_IF FILE_EXISTS_IN_GAME block
END                                                                                // ends ACTION_FOR_EACH block
END                                                                                // ends first ACTION_IF FILE_EXISTS_IN_GAME block

[Andrea C.]

So basically although aTWEAKS automatically installs ToBEx as it's required for some of its components, installing it first on our own would be optimal?

[aVENGER]

So basically although aTWEAKS automatically installs ToBEx as it's required for some of its components, installing it first on our own would be optimal?

aTweaks doesn't include TobEx.

You need to install it manually before aTweaks or use a mod which does that for you (i.e. Rogue Rebalancing, SCSII etc).

[Andrea C.]

^ Gotcha. I had it confused with Rogue Rebalancing, then (I always use both in my games)

[phordicus]

Looking good.

Due to an engine issue, the Elemental Summoning spell will always summon elementals next to the caster instead of having them appear at the targeted location

Which issue is this? I had crazy, inexplicable assertion errors trying to alter spider summons. Anything similar?

A few Nereids are added to the Lighthouse map, near the treasure cave and to the northern part of Balduran's Isle in BG1

Replacing the sirines, I assume.

The casting of this spell causes a horizontal sheet of ice to appear above the designated area. The sheet immediately falls down, crumbling into ice blocks

New animation? Colorable, iow can look like stone or magma blocks, too?

Suggestion

When this spell is cast, the caster can influence the actions of the chosen recipient by the utterance of a few words, phrases or sentences, thereby suggesting a course of action, unless a save vs. spells with a +3 bonus is made. The suggestion must be worded in such a manner as to make the action sound reasonable.

Any luck on how the engine assigns scripts to AI-charmed creatures, or is this a renamed Dire Charm?

Beguiling Aura

All male humanoids run the risk of being beguiled by a Nereid if they look upon her beauty from a distance of 30 feet or less. The victims must save vs. spells or become fascinated by the Nereid for 1 turn. A fascinated creature is unable to harm the Nereid in any way, but it will not turn on its former allies and fight them either. This ability has no effect on blinded characters.

Similar to the above, I am very much looking forward to how this implemented! I've been experimenting with script substitutions for certain effects but it's unreliable so far, especially for Player1.

[aVENGER]

Looking good.

Thanks!

Due to an engine issue, the Elemental Summoning spell will always summon elementals next to the caster instead of having them appear at the targeted location

Which issue is this? I had crazy, inexplicable assertion errors trying to alter spider summons. Anything similar?

Summoning EFFs need to be self targeted, even when using shell spells. That's why the creatures always appear next to the caster in my case.

A few Nereids are added to the Lighthouse map, near the treasure cave and to the northern part of Balduran's Isle in BG1

Replacing the sirines, I assume.

No, they are placed on the beach, next to the Carrion Crawlers below the cave.

The casting of this spell causes a horizontal sheet of ice to appear above the designated area. The sheet immediately falls down, crumbling into ice blocks

New animation? Colorable, iow can look like stone or magma blocks, too?

Not quite. In PnP, when Wall of Ice is cast horizontally it works similarly to Ice Stom. Therefore, they use the same animation but with a different projectile, as Wall of Ice only hits once and covers a slightly larger area.

Teleport Without Error
This spell allows the caster to transport himself to any known location in his home plane with no chance for error. It also enables travel to other planes of existence, but this assumes that the caster has already visited that plane and carefully perused the destination area.

SCS uses this a lot and it's irritating that it's not available for the PCs (or enemy mages in general, frankly). Is this just to complete their descriptions, or will it also be used as a method of pursuit?

It's used for both pursuit and tactical maneuvering i.e. just like in PnP Fiends. For what it's worth, aTweaks makes PnP Dimension Door available to the players and it works in a similar manner. Plus, you can actually select Teleport Without Error from the Elemental Princes' special abilities menu and use it yourself. Combined with divination spells like Farsight and Clairvoyance, this creates some interesting tactical possibilities for the opponents but also for the player's party.

Any luck on how the engine assigns scripts to AI-charmed creatures, or is this a renamed Dire Charm?

Afraid not, I'm just using this. Same thing for Beguiling Aura.

Edited by aVENGER, 05 April 2012 - 05:49 AM.

[Salk]

Summoning EFFs need to be self targeted, even when using shell spells. That's why the creatures always appear next to the caster in my case.

Forgive me if I am going to say something stupid again but wouldn't it be possible to alter the spell so that the player doesn't get the choice of selecting a summoning area at all?

[Salk]

I guess Wisp is not yet back to work on aTweaks, uh? I am looking forward to this new PnP Elementals component but I must confess I've been even more eager to play the PnP Undead one...

Well, there have been minor developments on that front. Undeads have probably been untangled from Beholders (who are what is holding this train up). Assuming I have not forgotten anything unfinished in Undeads it should mainly be a matter of testing and some polish before I can release them. I will try to get some work done during easter, but no ETA.

Thanks for the update, Wisp!

I don't understand though how this component was delayed by the work on beholders. Beholders are not undead, right?

[Daulmakan]

I don't understand though how this component was delayed by the work on beholders. Beholders are not undead, right?

Actually, there is an undead variant of beholders, the death tyrant.

[aVENGER]

Forgive me if I am going to say something stupid again but wouldn't it be possible to alter the spell so that the player doesn't get the choice of selecting a summoning area at all?

I actually tried that for a while but eventually opted against it as it felt off.

The current solution is the best, until A64 or BGEE provide us better alternatives.

[Wisp]

I don't understand though how this component was delayed by the work on beholders. Beholders are not undead, right?

Well, okay, it did not, really. I was just caught up in releasing undead and beholders at the same time (and I dislike having broken stuff in a public release, even if it is disabled).

[aigleborgne]

Forgive me if I am going to say something stupid again but wouldn't it be possible to alter the spell so that the player doesn't get the choice of selecting a summoning area at all?

I actually tried that for a while but eventually opted against it as it felt off.

The current solution is the best, until A64 or BGEE provide us better alternatives.

Am I the only one that is very little confident in BGEE ?
I'm pretty sure it won't bring as much as current mods and it will certainly be not compatible with some mods like... TobEx. It wouldn't be an issue if it would bring all TobEx improvements and corrections, but I seriously doubt it.
Plus, it will be a one-shot release, not sure they will continue to release patch to improve it in the future.

But well, we will see, maybe I will be surprised.