I want more points

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by Anthropoid, Jan 8, 2015.

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  1. Anthropoid

    Anthropoid Established Member

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    Is there a config file or something where I can change the amount of points available for point building new toons?

    I had painstakingly used the random generator (and some luck) to put together an excellent party of eight on my interim machine (an old laptop). Now I've switched to my hotshot new rig, I couldn't find the save files on the laptop, I tried to find them, the AppData files were hidden, I tried to reset to show hidden, something went amiss and the machine took hours to finish this process, then when it was done my whold desktop seems to have been made invisible on the laptop . . . long story short, I did a system restore on that laptop and I don't even know if those save files are on there any longer.

    It would be so much easier if I could simply either: (a) plug in the exact numbers I want to rebuild the toons or at least (b) regenerate them with a more generous helping of points to build with. 50 points should be ample.
     
  2. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    if you check in gazra's handy dandy game guide and walk through you can find the console commands to set your attributes to exactly what you want them to be.

    I recommend you keep them below 40.
     
  3. Anthropoid

    Anthropoid Established Member

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    LOL! 40!? I'd be happy if each toon had one 18, one 17 and the rest none below 11 :)

    That dang random thing is just so, well. . . RANDOM! I had one toon that first roll, had 12, 14, 18, 17, 15, 13 <--that to me is a very reasonable level 1 toon. . . next 50 rolls in a row had no 18s, and consistently one or two below 9!

    Thanks though, will check the Gazra Guide
     
  4. Anthropoid

    Anthropoid Established Member

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    Hey, one more question: the Read Magic bug and the "Gremag dialogue broken" bug, are those fixed in the 8.1.0 or do those need to be manually installed in 8.1.0?

    I'll see soon enough, and can always apply the fix when/if I need to but was curious.
     
  5. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    Read magic still identifies potions in 8.1, I'm not sure about the Gremag issue.
     
  6. Anthropoid

    Anthropoid Established Member

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    I still would like to change my TFE-X so that I get more buy points.

    The problem with using console commands to buff your toons is that:

    A. you have to develop a whole party then launch the game and enter the console commands once you are in an acceptable portion of the game map. Hommlet is certainly okay but I'm not sure if the starting areas are.

    B. Some of the abilities (e.g., Str, Dex, Int, Wis, Dex) if not all of them have pre-requisites for certain feats or skills. Thus, if you want to design a specific sort of toon, but your first crappy roll is inadequate you still have to keep rerolling.

    C. 35 points is not enough to make a reasonable toon from an all 8's toon. Is there a way to change it to whatever value I want? I've tried to modify it using the TFE-X.txt config file by simple changing the final number from 35 to 40 or 50 but TFE-X crashes.

    ADDIT: just to expand a bit on my opinion that "35 points is not enough to build a reasonable toon."

    To me, a D&D toon is an exceptional individual. They may have deficiencies, but generally those would be exceptions to the rule.

    It is my understanding that a score of 9 to 11 on an ability is "average." So in general, an adventurer would have all abilities at least in that ball park. Thus, I'd say that, most adventurers would have all abilities at at least 11.

    Perhaps a half-orc barbarian would have lower Int, or an Elf would have lower Cons, or a Halfling lower Str. But there are "racial" modifiers that do in fact lower the base score in all such cases.

    Related to being exceptional, IMO, a D&D toon would also have a high level in their primary ability and indeed would tend to have high scores in a number of the related abilties.

    As such, I conclude that a "reasonable" toon will (in addition to have nothing below 11) also have at least one 18, one 17, and a couple values between 12 and 16.

    This is all my opinion, and someone else's opinion may differ. Someone else may wish to play all toons with all 18s, yet another player may wish to use the very first roll of every toon and experience play with a randomly "gimped" party of characters. All such opinions and the full range in between are arguably valid, as it is after all a singleplayer game, in which how I play my game has absolutely zero bearing or impact on how anyone else plays theirs. If it were an actual roleplaying situation, or a multiplayer game then the only valid "opinion" is the one specified by the games rules and any desire for something more or less advantageous is effectively a desire to cheat.

    But it is not possible to cheat when playing a singleplayer game! ;)

    The Point buy system as it is currently configured starts each ability at 8 and allows a maximum of 35 buy points.
    Raising abilities costs different number of buy points: 9 to 14 costs 1; 14 to 16 costs 2; and 16 to 18 costs 3.

    That means that

    1. Raising all six abilities to 11 costs a total of 6*3pts (8 to 9 = 1; 9 to 10 = 1; 10 to 11 = 1) = 18 buy point cost in total.

    2. Raising one of the abilities up to 18 then costs an additional 13 points (11 to 14 = 3pts; 14 to 16 = 4 pts; 16 to 18 = 6 pts)

    3. Raising one of the abilities up to 17 would then cost an additional 10 points.

    That is 41 points to get what IMO is a "reasonble toon" one with nothing below 11, one ability at 18 and one at 17.

    IMO, a total allocation of 50 pts would be totally reasonable.

    Appreciate if anyone can advise if there is a way to reconfigure my copy to set that total number of buy points (or some other variable such as the starting level of each ability in the buy screen).
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2015
  7. Daryk

    Daryk Veteran Member

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    Have you tried the switching between rolled and point buy exploit?
     
  8. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    OK, then here is what you do.

    Roll up a character but do not place the scores in their appropriate boxes, leave them where they are.

    Click on advanced and then click on the spot where those scores you left would be if you superimposed the first screen on the advanced screen.

    If you click and hold in the right spot you will see your score from the roll, drag it to the attribute you want. Do this with all the scores and then you will still have the points to spend to add to those scores.

    Can you say start off with straight 18's?
     
  9. Sitra Achara

    Sitra Achara Senior Member

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  10. chano

    chano Established Member

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  11. Anthropoid

    Anthropoid Established Member

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    SWEET! Thanks gentlemen! You've given me virtually every option I could want :)


    Holy crap! That is like Magic! I love it :)

    And as long as you use an initial roll set with some middling numbers (a 10, maybe a 12 or something) you will only wind up with a strong toon, not an "all 18er.:

    I installed "Cheat Engine" and I was trying to folow Sitra's directions for modifying the addresses where the values for the point buyer are specified but couldn't quite get it to work. I'm sure more poking around and I'd get it to work.

    But I actually like this method, it retains a certain "randomicity" to it.

    ADDIT: Ah . . . soo many threads on this forum . . . can one of you kind fellows direct me to a thread or two that discusses the details of creating specific types of toons?

    For example: in my last party (the one I'm going to abandon as I considred it to still be a "learning" party and I had already breached my dead-is-dead ethic once) I had

    1. female human bard (which I foolishly added a barbarian level to): I think this time I'm going to focus on bard only leveling and get her to the Whirlwind attack thingy. Her starting feats were to buff her social skills (Negotiator and Diplomat? maybe it was Investigator, Iforget). This time, I'll leave the social skills for later levels if they prove necessary, and focus on the skills to get to Whirlwind (Dodge and mobility seem like the best thing to start with?).

    2. Fighter: this guy was solid, I was leaning more toward a party of light mobiles, and I had him with mobility and dodge I believe, then at level 2 or 3 he took power attack and cleave. Bad ideas? Seemed to be working well overall.

    3. Wizard: intended to never multi-class but I added the two ranged weapon feats at level 1 (point blank and precise) so he could shoot xbow into melee when magic missiles were expended. I was pretty happy with this build but went astray when I took potion brewing instead of wondrous items (would seem to make more sense to let the cleric be the potion brewer?). Any pointers on this type of mage? I'd prefer to keep him strictly an "Air Force" type mage, i.e., lots of ranged attacks (magic missile, crossbow, acid balls, etc.). I guess maybe focusing on teh school for fireballs and then excluding Illusion or something?

    4. Ranger: as I see is noted in a number of threads, these toons just do not shine that much. They are my absolute favorite class in actual RPGs and in games like Skyrim (awesome with Hunterborn and other Immersion mods), but it seems like bows and the bow feats just underperform in this game. Plus then at like level 3, I realized I needed him to be a rogue, so I think I'll instead make my new party have a rogue in favor of a ranger and see about making him a two-weapon master. I notice from the "Improved two-weapon handling" that it requires "primary attack +6?" How do you get that? Is 2 weapon track really worth it? It doesn't seem very strong up through level 3 or so.

    5. Cleric: human pelor, I tend to use these guys rather uncreatively in lower levels: all slots with healing spells, maybe bless. With high strength and decent Cons and Dex, though, this guy was am ample melee toon. I think I took Dodge and mobility for his first feats though. Any suggestions?

    6. Male Half-Orc Barbarian: With strength 20, this guy was pretty awesome (though _slightly_ squishy). Put him and the fighter in front of any doorway, the cleric behind them and the rest behind lobbing/shooting destruction. Again, I think I took dodge and mobility . . . I have it in my head that being able to move around the battlefield is good!

    7. Female fighter. This toon had somewhat lackluster stats, and I figured I'd get a couple levels in fighter then sorceress (she had 18 charisma). I dabbled with the two weapon thing with her but I think she just wasn't suitable (Str was only about 12 or 13. Would like to do a "spellsword" type toon though: one that weilds fighter weapons, wears some armor, and uses spells in close combat, if that is tenable.
     
    Last edited: Jan 10, 2015
  12. HeavyP

    HeavyP Member

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    Minor question, but in reference to the comment earlier on the console commands, do they work on NPC followers? I'm happy with my party, but I'd like to bump Meleny's strength up a point or two so she can carry more than just leather armor, a crossbow, and a light scimitar. For one, I'd expect a farm girl to be a bit stronger (though I suppose she *does* sound kind of young) and for two, her plaintive "This stuff is too heavy for me!" just sounds so on-the-verge-of-tears that I find myself wanting to apologize for asking too much (which I suppose speaks more to my mental health than it does to the game, but that's neither here nor there).

    Anyway, I brought up the console and typed in the string exactly as it's written :
    game.party[5].stat_base_set(stat_strength,10)
    with her in the rightmost slot, but it just says "10" when I hit enter and her strength doesn't appear to have changed.
     
  13. marc1967

    marc1967 Established Member

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    Looks like you did it right. The 10 is an indication that it changed properly. Sometimes you have to shift their gear around in their inventory before the new encumbrance kicks in.

    Also keep in mind that when using console commands that refer to party[x], the character count starts at 0. So party[0] will actually change the strength for party member 1, and in your example party[5] will change party member 6.
     
  14. silo25

    silo25 Established Member

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    could do the drag stat method in character creation
     
  15. HeavyP

    HeavyP Member

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    You were right, I just unequipped and re-equipped her armor and the change registered. Thanks!
     
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