Circle of Eight Modpack 5.9.x/5.9.xNC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

How about some Umber Hulks and Xorn and Purple Worms as reinforcements for Romag as well?

Those 2 locked chests in the Moathouse that have a DC of 31 (i.e. the Ghouls' Chest and the Crayfish Loot) really annoy me! I wish that their DC was 29, so that an 18 Dexterity level 2 rogue with thieves' tools could just be able to unlock them as the party clears out the Moathouse.

I experienced the following while playing 5.9.1 NC:

When the Circle of Eight Modpack is installed, a half-orc PC named Giant always appears in the following directory:
C:\Program Files\Atari\Temple of Elemental Evil\modules\ToEE\players
Is this intentional or a bug?

The Light Blue Robes weigh 3. All other robes and wizard robes weigh 5.

My male elf cleric of Pelor (with the Sun and Healing domains) was able to use Greater Turning 3 times before resting. That Sun domain ability is supposed to be only usable once before resting replenishes the ability (see image below).

In one of the images below, you can see that, if my PC was to move, the game indicates that he would provoke an attack of opportunity from each of the 2 DEAD zombies lying on the floor next to my PC.

Holding down the Tab key reveals some of the secret doors in the game before those secret doors have actually been "discovered" by your party (see image below - you can clearly see the undiscovered secret door in the pillar being highlighted by the Tab key). This only works for a few of the secret doors. It doesn't work for most of the secret doors in the game.

My rogue is able to attempt to Open Lock and Disable Device 10 feet away from chests because my rogue is wielding a reach weapon (which makes him safe from some traps triggering if he bungles his Disable Device roll) (see image below).

 

I can actually tell you where these come from. Around the Rainbow Rock in EM, there are 2 zombies (among other things). Each one carries one of these amulets. If you do not pick them up and let enough time pass, their bodies will disappear and leave their item behind. There are two more of these amulets found on the two zombies in the courtyard of the Moathouse Respawn.

I don't think that I said this earlier but I think that this is a cool feature. Also the way that there are day and night time places for the villagers in Hommlet, Nulb, VB plus a few things in the temple is cool as well.

While this post is from a few days ago, I finally got my 5.9.1 run up to this point and got Senshock to VB as well and had the same experience - there was no choices but for my party to attack him. I had saved my game just before entering and tried several times but all met with the same result. He was no push over either, he summoned an elemental each round and it got a bit crowded in there. His two apprentices pretty much stand around and beg for mercy. Anyway, I was really after the merchant dialogue so I exited out and opened up the Senshock_Verbobonc.dlg file. I found that if I removed the paladin check from the LG, NG, and CG dialogue choice (my party was NG), that I could have a civil discussion with Senshock and he would sell me his goods. I'm probably telling Gaear et. al. what they already know but I thought that I would pass this along in case it helps.

Along these lines, I have found that Senshock and his apprentices do not refresh their inventories. Should they?

 

I didn't place the more critters there for several reasons:

1. The Combat Queue has a limit of 30 participants.
   Meaning, if there are more than 30 people engaged in combat, your party included, the ones who are 'outside' the queue will just stand there until the queue has space. Didn't want too many of those.
2. I wanted the toughest Temple members to be there. Many of the other monsters are level 1, like the Earth Temple Guards, or just 'wild' monsters, like ghouls and harpies etc.

Also, it seems there was file missing for the combat script. Combat shouldn't behave so badly.
The main problem manifests itself if you play smart and stand back at the corridor. In that case, many of the mobs who can't directly see you will just stand there (but *will* attack when you get closer). That's the reason I haven't enabled the Earth regroup yet.

The missing file is attached - if you want to try it, extract it to [ToEE main folder]\data\scr, and then try again.

 

I found a small bug:

I was peaking at the dialogue files and came across 00308lareth.dlg. If you open it up, on the dialogue line 440, Lareth says he will give you 4k in gold but it is only coded to give 2k.

 

This isn't a bug, but this IS the commentary thread, right?

When I finally got the slavers quest from the Viscount WOW! I was pleasantly surprised with the more in depth "information" he gave me on the slavers.

I'm not going to go any more into detail, except coooooooooooooooooooool! :yes:

 

Actually the gold with Lareth is a bug. He initially offers 2k but you can use your intimidate skill to make him double his offer. However, he still only gives you 2k. Sure he is evil and untrustworthy but I would like to believe that if nothing else, your party can count so they notice the difference and the dialogue continues. (that would be kind of cool).

I just finished the slaver battle in 5.9.1. Wow. All I can say is that it was tough. I know that I complained in the past but it is fine now. I would have to say that it ranks as one of the four toughest battles in the game (others being Balor, Iuz, and Zuggmoty). I believe that was the goal for this battle and it is certainly there.

I would also like to get a little help about what I should do for the SB in VB. I saw the mysterious person quickly leave the third floor of the castle. I thought that this would be enough for me to confront either Darlia or Lerrik about it. However, when I go and talk to either one of them about it, there is not a dialogue choice to do so. I even tried both day time and night time conversations in case that mattered. I peaked at their dlg files so it does appear that I can confront them about it but I am unsure what it takes to do so. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Doh! I see it now. That will teach me to complain before I test it out in game.

As for the variables, I received:

game.global_vars[978] = 5

and

game.global_vars[965] = 0

 

Ok. Thanks for the explanation. The character who does most of the talking in my group is a rogue and I have not invested many points in the Spot skill for him. So he did not have an 11 at the time (and still doesn't for that matter). Other members of my party do so I'll be more careful next time.

 

While playing 5.8.1 NC, Lareth prebuffed with a spell, and I had to manually initiate combat with him once the dialogue had ended.

While playing 5.9.1 NC, Lareth never prebuffed, and combat automatically started with him once the dialogue ended.

 

I just found a majorly hugely monstrous exploit in my 3rd run through of 5.9.1.

The Hero's Shield from the arena of heroes. It works as a buckler! It's the size of a large shield but you can equip it and use it and gain +7 to your AC while using 2 handed weapons! Man, the pregenerated PC, Giant, would rule using a dwarven war axe or scythe in each hand and the hero's shield equipped!

I am running a fighter, a rogue and a wizard. No cleric. Just for !@#$% and giggles, I threw it on my fighter using a ranseur and lo and behold, it equipped! A masterwork enchanted buckler +3 adds +4 to AC. This things adds +7 and can be used with a two handed weapon! My fighter has a 28 AC at 9th level, and I haven't even hit the moathouse respawn, hickory branch, verbobonc or the temple!

Not that I'm complaining but thought you might like to know. I don't know if that was intended. :yes:

Sorry if this is a spoiler but I couldn't figure out a way to post it without being specific.