142 replies to this topic

[Borealis]

berelinde, on May 13 2010, 11:03 AM, said:

Usually, there's the chapter screen that has the ominous voice of the narrator telling you that help doesn't come cheap in the city of coin. Since both versions of that "text screen" mention either the Shadow Thieves or Bodhi, I couldn't use it.

Gotcha. I didn't miss it, anyway. I've seen enough chapter changes in BG1 that I pretty much just hit 'done' right away.

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Alternatives might have come out relatively recently, but I started it ages ago, before I really knew what I was doing with cutscenes or chapter screens, and Aster's route was the one I did first. I felt that a silent chapter change was better than one that didn't work. By the time I got to the part where you leave for Spellhold, I had figured out how to do chapter changes with text screens, but I forgot to go back and change the chapter 3 transition.

Absence makes the mind grow fonder, doesn't it? Or something like that.

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I'm still trying to figure out what happened in your game. You wouldn't remember the exact conversation you had, so I'm going to have to follow every possible dialogue path to find out where the problems are. I'll get it sorted out, but it may take a while. I don't have anywhere near the modding time that I used to have. In the meantime, you should be OK with your current game. Sorry you didn't get the explanation.

Actually, the conversation was easy to remember; I just said I'd come back with the money, and when I did, I was asked if I'd met Harold. There was no intermediate step. I don't mind keeping the money, mind you; I was hoping there would be some XP involved.

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Since I'm going to have to redo most of Aster's dialogue, the next version will only work before Valen and Brus spawn for the first time. With that in mind, it's probably going to be much better for you to continue your current game than backtrack. With all the quests and whatnot in chapters 2 and 3, you won't want to be repeating that.

I restart so many times it's a wonder I ever finished the first game. I've never gotten to Chapter 3 in this game even. I often say, 'hey, let's try such-and-such a character and see what happens when we pick up this NPC instead of that one...' And I never get anywhere. I wouldn't know Bodhi if she bit me on the neck.

[berelinde]

Heh. your last sentence makes me laugh. I'm a chronic restarter, too. I like the beginning of the game, when all the quests and romances are still underway, and then later, once the quests are done and the romances ae all committed, I lose interest. Chapters 4-7 always feel like a let-down, like it's nothing but one big push to get to the end of the game.

I'm hoping to have some modding time on Sunday, so we'll see if I can get Alternatives versioned up and tested then. I don't know if new Chapter 3 text screens will happen. They're a lot of work to make, but you're right. It just doesn't feel the same without *something* to mark the transition between free agent and pawn of the Shadow Thieves/minion of Bodhi/agent of the law/mercenary of whatever. <speaking gibberish> If I did them, the voiced part would be short, an edit of an existing sound file, assuming that I remember how to decompress game ACM files. I think the chapter screens are available as MOS files somewhere, but I would need to check.</speaking gibberish>

As for the dialogue in question, I found out what was going wrong, and I know how to fix it. It will require a medium-sized recode, though, and testing to make sure I didn't screw it up. So I'll probably be versioning up sometime next week.

Thanks for reporting this.

Edit: Turns out that adding a Chapter 3 text screen will not be as difficult as I thought. The sound and graphic files were easy to find, so I can just edit existing files rather than creating new ones from scratch. That's a big time-saver. Most people do just hit "Done" as soon as they appear, so they'll never see or hear more than the first few seconds of it, anyway, but at least it would be there as a visual clue that the chapter has changed.

Edited by berelinde, 13 May 2010 - 03:47 PM.

[berelinde]

You don't have ToB installed, do you?

I've made up a hotfix for SoA-only installations. You can download it here.

To install this hotfix, simply extract the archive in your game directory. Allow the extractor to merge the file folders and overwrite any files. The hotfix will work for any platform, Windows, Mac, or OSX.

Install the mod.

Since you are planning on doing the "paladin route," I should tell you that there is a minor bug that I need to fix. I'm usually better than this about fixing bugs promptly, but fixing this one requires a fairly significant recode, and that means testing. Since my game discs are currently out on loan, I'm not going to be able to test anything until this weekend, when I get my game disks back.

The bug is avoidable. To avoid it, simply make sure that you have 15K gold in your inventory before you meet your contact at the Five Flagons and do not tell her that you'll be back later unless you decide not to accept her offer after all.

Edited by berelinde, 03 June 2010 - 04:08 AM.

[berelinde]

It would help if I didn't have a typo in the link.

This is what I get for doing forum stuff before I've had my first cup of coffee.

Try the link again. It works now.

[the bigg]

- As was already reported, if you get the invitation to go to Aster but go to her with less than 15k gold, the chapter counter will still be increased and the quest will be "silently" given. Quickly looking at the .d (without looking at the actual dialogue tree in InfExp), Aster20 and Aster26 appear to be triggering the bug (IncrementChapter() without checking for how much gold the party has).
- You need to pay 15k gold even if you have increased the Spellhold cost via SCSII. This must be fixed in SCSII, so it'll have to wait for DW to come back.
- As already reported, when you kill Aran for Aster, you are told to report to Bodhi.
- After going to Brynnlaw (via Aster), Saemon Havarian doesn't trigger the Vampire ambush. Duplicate state 14 of PPSAEM (" I fear I cannot allow you to leave my presence just yet.") for Aster and the vacation, like you're doing with 53 ("We have arrived, and in good time, I might add."). This is potentially game-breaking, since it doesn't advance AsylumPlot and doesn't make the game save-able.

Edited by the bigg, 03 June 2010 - 04:34 AM.

[berelinde]

Gotcha, and good timing. I'm getting the game disks back tomorrow, so I'll be able to test out the fixes then.

[berelinde]

You might want to check back here tomorrow night or Saturday. The bigg reports an issue that has the potential to be pretty bad. It's an easy fix, though, so I should be able to get a new version tested and uploaded within hours of getting my disks back (tomorrow morning).

[berelinde]

the bigg, on Jun 3 2010, 08:25 AM, said:

- As already reported, when you kill Aran for Aster, you are told to report to Bodhi.

You don't have a quote that would help me find this, do you? I'm trying to find the place this journal entry gets set and having absolutely no luck. Even a couple of words would help... provided they aren't "Aran Linvail".

I got my game disks back a day early, so I was able to reinstall and get everything else sorted... I think. If you don't remember, I guess I'll find out myself when I go to test the fixes.

I could have sworn that I had the journal entries sorted, but apparently not.

[the bigg]

AR0329.bcs:

 <...>
IF
	Dead("aran")
	Global("DearAranJournal","AR0329",0)
THEN
	RESPONSE #100
		SetGlobal("DearAranJournal","AR0329",1)
		AddJournalEntry(5819,QUEST) // Perform Bodhi's tasks to receive her aid.  Aran Linvail, the Shadowmaster of the Shadow Thieves in Athkatla, is dead.  Now I must return to Bodhi and tell her that her grim task has been completed.
END

EXTEND_TOPping the script with

IF
	Dead("aran")
	Global("DearAranJournal","AR0329",0)
	WorkingWithAster()
THEN
	RESPONSE #100
		SetGlobal("DearAranJournal","AR0329",1)
		AddJournalEntry(~Perform Aster's tasks to receive her aid.

Aran Linvail, the Shadowmaster of the Shadow Thieves in Athkatla, is dead.  Now I must return to Aster and tell her that her grim task has been completed.~, QUEST)

should do the trick.

Edited by the bigg, 03 June 2010 - 01:18 PM.

[berelinde]

Woohoo! Thanks much!

Of course, there's still a chance that a player could still see the wrong entry, unless I add a !WorkingWithAster() check to the original block, *BEFORE* extending the script.

I was just now entering the docks to deal with the STs, too.

[the bigg]

berelinde, on Jun 3 2010, 11:56 PM, said:

Of course, there's still a chance that a player could still see the wrong entry, unless I add a !WorkingWithAster() check to the original block, *BEFORE* extending the script.

Not if you use EXTEND_TOP, since Aster's block sets DearAranJournal, preventing the non-Aster block from ever running.

[berelinde]

Well, everything is working fine, so far. Killed off the Shadow Thieves and about to take on the vampires. I've added that state to Saemon's dialogue, so if that works out the way it should, I'll be versioning up tonight.