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

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by Necroticpus, Aug 27, 2010.

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  1. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    I second that notion, was a fun thing to read - especially when it happened to someone else's party.
     
  2. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Random encounter door guys: are you using any custom portraits or portrait mods?

    White box random encounter worldmap guys: was this ever not this way? You can't look at the 'townmap' when on a RE map, just the worldmap.

    Which chests specifically? I just tested with Mathel's chest and the chest icon appeared as it should.

    Never seen or heard of that before. You might want to try a module reactivation, gazra.

    Most people seem to be in favor of keeping it as it is. I don't think it's so horrible that one RE out of all of them does this.

    The orc cave used to be a separate mod, but it was integrated into HB and is indeed now Hungous' cave, although the crew of orcs from the original mod is the studded leather wearing bunch east of the cave entrance.

    Fixed.
     
  3. General Ghoul

    General Ghoul Established Member

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    No, just the ones that come with the mod. Also I got them 3 times in a row for just standard REs, zombies, giant lizards, and 6 goblins. Weird.

    I like it this way, there should be more random encounters like this, how would a hobgoblin patrol do against 4 camping jellies or a couple of will o' wisps?
     
  4. Sitra Achara

    Sitra Achara Senior Member

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  5. gazra_1971

    gazra_1971 Knights of Legend

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    Originally posted by sirchet:
    laugh out loud. It's always funny when it happens to someone else! (like the Jackass movies). I will post more of his emails in future - the problem is that his emails are few and far between.

    Looking at The Royal Canadian's screenshot of the slavers makes me look forward to fighting them for the first time even more now! They look cool in their various attires, especially the fighter at the far left - he looks so awesome and formidable in his dark armour and wielding that huge sword!

    Those 0s only started appearing in the Rolls History window when I was clearing out level 1 of the Temple of Elemental Evil. After rebooting my computer, I no longer experience any text corruption in the Rolls History window. A friend and I have found that if you play this computer game for extended periods of time, then the game can become corrupted, but all of the corruption goes away after a reboot.

    The blank white square replaces the chest icon graphics in the top left of the chest looting window only for a few chests. I wasn't paying attention to which chests it happens with. I will keep track of which chests it happens to in my next runthrough of the game.

    The blank white square has been on the world map after random encounters ever since I started playing this game (which was with 5.8.1 NC). As you say, there's nothing "wrong" with it appearing - it justs looks unprofessional. If it was possible to change the colour of the blank white square to black, then you couldn't see it and the world map screen would look better. But it is just cosmetic.

    I just did the reactive temple for Alrrem and his minions. I was disappointed at how easy that combat is. But it is MUCH better than how it was before the reactive temple mod!

    The Helm of Reading Magic can be used on already identified potions and scrolls. Is it possible to change it so that the Read Magic spell won't cast on already identified potions and scrolls?

    Don't delete the other 2 sets of +1 +2 +3 in the item_creation.mes file. I found entries for those 3 sets of bonuses in another .mes file and I believe that the first set of bonuses applies to WE (weapons?), and one of the two remaining sets applies to AoE (Area of Effect?). If I can find which .mes file they were in, then I will post the information in this thread.

    It is not possible to SHIFT-click Antonio's Mace (belonging to one of the Priests in Alrrem's chamber). Is it just a Silver Light Mace? It's worth a lot more than a Silver Light Mace.

    My level 9 rogue can't use Romag's sealed letter. How do I use this item? If I'm not supposed to use the item, then what function does that item have in the game?

    The Masterwork Great Cleaver is only worth approximately 6 GP (see screenshot below). This seems to me to be WAY too low!

    Romag's diary has a typo (see screenshot below):
    "Alrrem knows Besornig shall soon turn on him with the remnants of Air."
    It should be Belsornig.

    One time, when I travelled to Nulb, a Nulb village woman walked north-northeast into the swamp (she was actually wading through the swamp water, walking on the ground, making sounds of wading through the water). I took a screenshot of it (see screenshot below), but my game crashed to desktop as soon as I returned to my game from my image editing program.

    One time, after I rested for 8 hours in the Inn of the Welcome Wench, when I exited the inn, I was unable to move any of my characters around Hommlet (see screenshot below). It looks as though everybody is in combat mode (even though I never initiated combat mode and the game was not in combat mode). Notice how the Hommlet NPCs to either side of my party also appear to be in combat mode (i.e. Furnok to the left, and Cavanaugh the Beggar to the right). However, I was able to use the world map to travel elsewhere, and my game functioned normally from then on. However, when I loaded my last saved game before this incident, and did exactly the same things as before, the exact same problem occurred again (i.e. my characters exited the inn in a combat stance, unable to move at all around Hommlet).

    The Fire Temple Bugbear that patrols the door on the right side of level 2 of the Temple of Elemental Evil is not KOS (kill on sight) (see screenshot below). The female bugbear and the 2 goblins in the kitchen on the left side of the same level are also not KOS. The trolls near Oohlgrist are also not KOS.
     

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  6. gazra_1971

    gazra_1971 Knights of Legend

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    The Earth Temple Altar (i.e. the pyramid in the middle of the 4 Earth temple chests in the Earth Temple (i.e. the earthen-floored room with the Earth Elementals on level 1 of the Temple of Elemental Evil)) is one example of a container that shows a blank white sqaure instead of the chest icon graphics at the top left of the looting window (see screenshot below).

    While mucking around with the Craft Magic Arms & Armor interface, I was able to drag the scroll bar below its normal limit (see screenshot below). However, when I let go of the mouse button, the scroll bar snapped back up to its normal position.

    Below is another screenshot of the +1 +2 +3 sets of bonuses appearing 3 times in the list of the possible enhancements that can be added to a weapon or armour in the Craft Magic Arms & Armor window.

    When I had a random encounter on the random map that has the camp-fire, I noticed another animated fire amongst the black above the random map (see screenshot below).

    I believe that either:
    a. the no-clipping borders on the Nulb map are not properly closed near the northern side of the drawbridge (allowing one or two Nulb villagers to walk north or northeast into the swamp), or;
    b. one of the Nulb Village Women has her waypoints (if any) not assigned properly and she adopts a combat stance on the pier half the time.

    My main criticisms of this game are:
    1. this game uses an isometric view (which looks awesome but makes combat more confusing and difficult and awkward due to combatants being obscured behind walls/doors/other combatants, and you can't move combatants directly behind other combatants because the 2D sprites of the combatant are in the way of the mouse pointer.
    2. combatants don't have colour coding to identify which faction they belong to.
    3. the Help interface lists spells according to character classes and spell levels.

    I would like to see DarkStorm's ToEE Engine Recreation Project:
    a. use an overhead (birds-eye) view;
    b. constantly have blue circles around the base of all allied combatants and red circles around the base of all enemy combatants during combat mode (even better would be to have a different coloured circle around the base of each combatant that identifies which faction that each combatant belongs to);
    c. list all of the spells in the Help interface in alphabetical order of the spells.
    I think that the ideal version of this computer game would incorporate these changes.

    I was disappointed at how easy the reactive air temple combat is with Kelno and his minions (my level 9 characters hardly got any damage), but it is MUCH better than the way it was before the reactive temple mod.

    Now that the two werewolves have been moved to the air temple, you might want to consider renaming the Werewolves' Chest to something more appropriate because new players will be left wondering why the chest is called that.

    Why is there no Light Pick and Masterwork Light Pick in the game? Are they considered to be overpowered weapons?

    What function does a potion of poison have in the game?
     

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  7. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    I'll check.

    I think you're supposed to give it to Wrench, aren't you?

    I'll look into it.

    Will fix.

    'Combat stances' are how mobs appear when they're sector is not activated. It sounds like a waypoint issue, but I don't believe there are any wrongly assigned waypoints there, which probably means fluke.

    That's jerkstop.

    I don't think the trolls are supposed to be KOS. Not sure about the bugbears.

    I'll check it out.

    That sounds strangely similar to the Nulb thing.

    I believe they only go to the air temple when it's reactive.

    Are they supposed to be in the game and are they in protos.tab?

    They look like healing potions and will poison you if you assume they are and drink them without IDing them.
     
  8. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    5.9.3 update:

    I've decided to release 5.9.3 with some additional expansion stuff I've been working on, as opposed to without it, hence the delay. In addition to all the bugfixes and tweaks and updates discussed here, 5.9.3 will also include:

    • Some plots and quests for the Hextorites and Pelorites in Verbobonc
    • Some new stuff involving the castle in Verbobonc
    • A new 'Eliminating Wilfrick' quest/battle
    • Some Slavers updates
    • Possible tweaks to the fugitives' scenarios
    • Maybe some other stuff
    We probably should have put a lid on the essential bugfix stuff from 5.9.2 and released that as 5.9.3, and then started on this other stuff, but it just sort of crept in and I really don't want to release it half-baked. Still, it shouldn't be too long before it's ready. Stay tuned.
     
  9. cezmail

    cezmail Gorboth's Rider

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    This all sounds really great Gaear and i can appreciate all the work you and the others have done to tweak and improve the various scenarios. I look forward to the release and trying out myself. So until the time I will continue with my current game. Now I will have to wonder what the Hexties will have for my group, good or bad. :)
     
  10. gazra_1971

    gazra_1971 Knights of Legend

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    I've seen quite a few different Nulb Village Men and Women adopt stationary combat stances on the Nulb map on a number of occasions. Something is not right with Nulb and some of the Nulb Village Men and Women who patrol its walkways.

    No, I mean my characters were all in stationary combat stances (even though the game was not in combat mode) and they could not move AT ALL from the spots that they appeared on when they appeared on the Hommlet map (after exiting the Welcome Wench Inn)! Do you mean that this behaviour falls into a broad category called jerkstop?

    True.

    The Light Pick is in the weapon list in the computer game manual. I couldn't see the Light Pick in the protos.tab when I did a cursory search for it.

    I was disappointed at how easy the reactive water temple combat and the combat with Bassanio and the 2 Noble Salamanders in the Fire Temple are. I now agree with Necroticpus's suggestion to replace all of the Flamebrothers with Noble Salamanders in the Fire Temple with Bassanio.

    Something very weird happened in my game when I tried to make my cleric cast 2 spells on my rogue. My cleric of Pelor has the Healing and Sun domains. I tried to make my cleric cast 2 healing spells (I believe that they were both memorized domain spells), and instead of casting healing spells, my cleric cast Bear's Endurance and Shield of Faith on my rogue instead (even though my cleric had neither of those 2 spells memorized).

    The Rod of Smiting is already identified when you loot it off Belsornig's corpse.

    Why is it not possible to trip Noble Salamanders? It's not fair that they can't be tripped.

    What happens to the Rod of Smiting once it uses up all of its charges? Is it possible to set the Rod of Smiting to not use up charges when you don't want it to, and then to set the Rod of Smiting to use up charges when you want it to?

    If the sole reason that one of the player's characters is automatically killed before the combat with the slavers starts is to even the playing field, then I would MUCH prefer it if you added one or more new slavers to the combat instead of automatically killing one of the player's characters. The benefit of doing this is that it would prevent players from cheating (by placing cannon fodder in the second portrait slot) so that the player would always have to face the same odds in that combat. Will you consider doing this?
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2010
  11. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Are they NPCs that are nearby, or far away? It's normal for NPCs that are in an inactive sector (somehwere not near you) to be in that stance, and you can see into inactive sectors in towns because fog-of-war is disabled.

    Yes, although most reports say that you can move in limited fashion.

    Will fix.

    As I said earlier, I'm not considering any modifications to the kill scenario at this time. We are considering some modifications to make the cannon fodder workaround less effective, however.

    Also, evening the playing field is not the sole reason to kill a party member, though it is helpful in that way. The main reason is story. It's something that happens to you - unexpected, harmful, unfair, yes. Even infuriating. That's what I was hoping for, but I understand that this may not appeal to repeat players and those who prefer to use ToEE moreso as a tactical combat simulator. No offense, but that's just tough. Anybody who makes mods will likely tell you (I've stated it myself before) that they're made almost exclusively with the first-time player in mind. There's really no other way to make them, unless, again, we view the game as a TCS, which I don't. That's just the way it is.

    On another topic, I really think you should try a reactivation of the mod, gazra, as many of the things you're reporting (the zeros thing, bad waypoints, now the cleric spells) sound goofy and really should not be happening, and we haven't seen any corroborating reports for most of them.

    That said, I do appreciate all your bug reports. :)
     
  12. gazra_1971

    gazra_1971 Knights of Legend

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    The NPCs in Nulb that adopt combat stances only do so when my party is many screen's distance away from them. Thank you for explaining why NPCs do that - I thought that my game was going bonkers before learning that.

    The last time that I had another random encounter on the random map with the campfire, there was no other animated fire above the random map, so that particular random map functioned normally on that occasion.

    The Hold Person spell suffers from the same misleading information as the Web spell (when a character is wielding a Ring of Free Movement) in that, upon making a successful saving throw to avoid the effect of the spell, the game totally misleads you by showing the graphics of the spell "working" on the character as well as text stating "Held!" when you hold the mouse pointer over the character or the character's portrait. The character isn't actually held and can act as normal but unless a player is aware that the game is tricking them, the player may think that their character actually is held and skip that character's turn accordingly.

    The pregenerated PC named Giant has the race of Half-Orc in the POOL LIST but he has the race of Human when you click on the VIEW button (see screenshot below).

    Now that NPCs are much more humbled than they were in the vanilla game, I don't see why they still should have a lot of their statistics hidden from the player. Is it possible to modify the game so that recruited NPCs reveal all of their statistics on the inventory interface screen?

    Does the new pregenerated neutral good male elf druid PC named Drood have any unique abilities?

    What are the prerequisites for a spellcaster with the Craft Magic Arms & Armor feat to be able to enchant a weapon with the Holy enchantment?
     

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    Last edited: Oct 29, 2010
  13. cezmail

    cezmail Gorboth's Rider

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    I believe the following is needed.

    You need be a cleric with the Good Domain, be good part in your alignment, be 7th level, and then use that domain spell, Righteous Might? (may be wrong with the spell name).

    As with the other alignment damage adds, substitute the Domain and alignment requirement.
     
  14. General Ghoul

    General Ghoul Established Member

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    I believe its the domain spell Holy Smite, which is one of the better area effect spells in the game, well worth the effort to make a wand of it.
     
  15. cezmail

    cezmail Gorboth's Rider

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    I do believe your very much right GG. I was going on a faulty memory. :)
     
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