Acheron

1.) The Union HLA grants a +5 casting level bonus, but the opcode for this (191) doesn't work according to IESDP (there are also some posts about opcode 191 not functioning in the IESDP forum at G3 also). This and thisat G3 discusses the issue.

-Acheron/Starcrunch

I've been working on a Magistrati of Azuth cleric kit which allows the player to use scrolls as a cleric kit, I can adapt the methods you guys used in Refinements to work here (it should work pretty smooth except for trouble with Human clerics dualing to thief when Refinements and/or Rogue rebalancing is installed (I hope to resolve this issue on my side, but first I want to get it working in general before worrying about this specific case). Is it ok with you if I borrow some code from refinements (particularly the code for modifying scroll type item restrictions, which is with only minor changes perfect)?

Secondly I noticed that the code for changing scroll usability uses WRITE_LONG to write the whole 4 bytes for class restrictions (starting at 0x1e) with an explicitly defined value. Could this be updated to use WRITE_BYTE instead? I think the changes would be this:

WRITE_LONG 0x1e 0x60305c80

to this:

READ_BYTE ~0x1f~ ~byte1~
WRITE_BYTE ~0x1f~ (~%byte1%~ BAND ~0b11111101~)
READ_BYTE ~0x20~ ~byte2~
WRITE_BYTE ~0x20~ (~%byte2%~ BAND ~0b10111101~)

This would make it so refinements doesn't overwrite class restrictions assigned by mods installed before it. I don't think it will really matter in my case since my mod will have to be installed after refinements anyway in order to patch up any incompatibility with use scrolls and clerics (and particularly Cleric-->Thief dual class). Note that the above code assumed you wanted to remove the Thief, Cleric/Thief, and Fighter/Thief flags, which I think are the three you need to set.

EDIT: Looking over the newest version of Refinements, I can see that it does some great stuff to generalize the use scroll code and make it compatible with pretty much everything. Could I use and modify this code for my mod? I would put a check in for Refinements and if it's present I actually won't have to do very much to make my mod play nice (basically refinements would already do everything I need except maybe the true class cleric), while if refinements isn't present I could install the pertinent parts of the code (basically the parts that address clerics dualing to mage). BTW the above code change request actually still applies in the latest version of Refinements.

Thanks,
-Starcrunch (or Acheron here at SHS)

So I'm goign to post my running commentary on playing through CA. The PC is an elven mage/thief (normally I'd have been a wild mage or enchanter, but I want the freedom to choose any characters and so need to have thieving skills). I've never played CA before and have no experience with the modules from pnp (I have looked over the forums to determine which NPC's I might want). There will be spoilers.

Current level: M/T 1/1
Current chapter: 1 - just climbed down the tree
Current Party: PC, Dirbert, Shadow, and Rurik

The mayor gives me the quest, there is a small inconsistancy concerning the overall goal of the mission (procure apples early or procure more than 1 apple), while the objectives are not in conflict it would be nice for the mayor to sort out which is more important. The mayor gives some background about other events in the region, very nice. He then presents me with Shadow, whose dialog with the mayor is well written. I took her into the party. I then picked up Dirbert, who will have a lions share of the kills. I bought my equipment (shortbow and longsword for me) and recruited Rurik into the party, his experience. I talked to the woman whose relatives went into the chasm and never returned and then went north (I missed talking to the farmer about the monsters attacking his animals or recruiting Chaarna, whom I wouldn't take anyway as she is an invoker... At high levels I don't miss enchantment magic too much but at low levels I do). We then rescued Paraway from the kobolds and I allowed him to join the party. The first goblin we ran into hit him with its first two arrows and killed him... so he left the party (since I have the feedback on I know the goblin got lucky). I really like that the  PC can't raise the dead, it's very refreshing not to have a high level cleric on every other town, plus it would make the plot nonsense. We had no other problems on the surface, the party decended into the chasm and walked through that with ease as well; having three characters with bows allows us to mow down goblins and kobolds pretty easily.

We met Meepo and he introduced us to his "queen". I was polite and agreed to help recapture the dragonling. I also got abit of surprise that I could ask about the monsters attacking the farmers animals. I'd had no real introduction to this quest so it didn't really make sense though it's easy enough to piece togeather what the farmer would have said had I talked to him. I rejected taking Meepo in the party (Deekin from NWN was enough kolbold loving for me). We found the dragon, and I told the dragon I wouldn't recapturee it (to double cross the kobolds) but Dirbert piped up about stealing from the dragon and it got pissed, so we fought until it surrendered. I'm not sure, but it looks like the only way to deal with the dragon is to either kill it or enslave it, it might be nice for the PC to have the option to really just let it go. After returning the dragons we took the key and went and fought the Dragonpriest. I don't mind the white troll avatar for the dragon priest, but it was kind of funny that it still uses troll death rules (I had to waste my one exploding potion to kill the thing).

We then went through the rest of the goblin portion of the citadel and rescued but did not keep Erky (feel like trying my luck with 4, plus I know I need Althon and want to take Aesdale and Blush too (Rurik will probably be replaced). I attacked the room full of many goblins by getting them to cluster and then sneaking up with my M/T and casting color spray to incapacitate all but one. The rest of the party poured into the room and shot the one still awake and we butchered the rest with swords (after this I realised we could just go around this room). We killed the remaining enemies in the next room as the marched into the teeth of the parties archery. We gave way before them as needed (archery tore apart the unique goblins). Skeletons have been the most difficult foes, their fear affect can make things very hard for such a low level party. Also something strange I've never noticed before is that fear affacted party members seem to run through closed (and sometimes locked/trapped) doors without actually opening them (possibly an engine bug, I can't recall every seein it in vanilla but there aren't many locations that have a lot of doors and enemies that cause fear).

Impressions: The NPC's have had a small amount of banter (but I've only played a short while so that's not surprising). The banter between Shadow and Dirbert about the PC's leadership ability sadly played only a short time after Paraway died so it seemed a bit out of place, but their isn't really any way around that (plus I'm guessing most people would have reloaded). The NPC stats looks a bit on the high side to me, I'd perfer they were more modest (for instance 17 of the 22 possible NPC's in CA have constitution of 15 or higher). The quest (well at least so far) makes sense and it's pretty easy to see why the player would want to do these things, that said, I do think that the story makes more sense for a good/neutral PC than an evil PC. The dialog is a bit forced at times and the PC often has only 1 choice to reply, and at least with the dragonling quest as far as I can see all the choices end the same way (thouhg I suppose it is poosible that without Dirberts intervention the situation could have neded peacfully (at least between PC and the dragon if not between the PC and the kobolds). The area design so far has been very nice. I recognise Oakhurst (Umar Hill's map) but the buildings have all been refinished and look very well done. Overall I've liked the new story and the new characters and am looking forward to continuing the story.

-Acheron/Starcrunch