Circle of Eight Modpack 5.8.x/5.8.xNC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

[Spider Dwarf]

Interesting. The moathouse tower has a locked chest that requires a 29 to open by a thief. Even taking the maximum that a 2nd level thief wearnign no armor can have with a 15 DEX (he is a boiler plate by the game) I cannot open it. Neither could my ranger wearing no armor and a 16 DEX. Each rolled a 20.

And I would have thought that a wizard's open / close spell would have automatically opened a chest such as this as early in the game as it is.

I will come back to it later.

[Spider Dwarf]

Now if that ain't the darnedest thing! In the Moathouse 1st level (viper/rats) I killed everything 'cept the rats. Went into the room where the lizard was and killed him/her as well and then closed the doors and rested. My rest was interrupted by two lizards and took care of them.

Now here is the interesting part. Either the original one or one of the 2nd set had an item. I can only assume that whichever lizard it was, it had killed something that had the item and then ate it all. This is the first time I have ever seen a lizard with treasure. Odd, but interesting.

Way to go guys. We all just love those curve balls. Don't go gettin' Monty Haul on me tho'.

[The Royal Canadian]

Hi SD
Actually the "Lizard with something in it's gizzard" goes all the way back to Vanilla and the PnP module from the 1980's. If you read Gaear's comments you will find that they actually REMOVED items from the game (like there is a real shortage of magic items in the game to start with )
The Royal Canadian

Originally Posted by Spider Dwarf

Now if that ain't the darnedest thing! In the Moathouse 1st level (viper/rats) I killed everything 'cept the rats. Went into the room where the lizard was and killed him/her as well and then closed the doors and rested. My rest was interrupted by two lizards and took care of them.

Now here is the interesting part. Either the original one or one of the 2nd set had an item. I can only assume that whichever lizard it was, it had killed something that had the item and then ate it all. This is the first time I have ever seen a lizard with treasure. Odd, but interesting.

Way to go guys. We all just love those curve balls. Don't go gettin' Monty Haul on me tho'.

[Spider Dwarf]

Thanks for the clarification. Actually I have the original and the entire set which are sitting here on my desk, but I have avoided reading it for spoilers.

And my apology for the the thumbs down smiley. It was supposed to be Two Thumbs Up and I know darned well that is what I clicked. Or at least I thought I had! Now I see they were pointin' the wrong way.

I'm having a dickens of a time "chatting" with Lucky Lubash—I talk, I die. And oddly enough I have not run into the prisoners after dealing with the zombies and green goos... And the cloaks did nothin' even with the whole party wearing 'em. A barrel full of fun. <g>

[Quint]

This may be an old bug, but I haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere.

I'm running Co8 5.8NC. My druid cast a spontaneuous Summon Nature's Ally II and the spell was never removed from her memorization. I was able to cast it repeatedly. Has anyone else encountered this before?
I'm going back to an earlier save in hopes that the bug won't be present.

Edit: After trying it out again, I found that I was spontaneously casting Summon Nature's Ally II from a memorized Extended Summon Monster I spell.

[Ausdoerrt]

My game broke (((( Everything was going smooth until I went to fight the Skeleton Priest at Rainbow Rock. Now today I load the saves after I beat him, and whenever I enter a building in Hommlet the game CTDs. FUUUU

EDIT: I think I have figured it out. The Consecrate spell is at fault. When I leave the area through world map while it's still in effect, game CTDs on RE or on next map change. Desecrate does NOT have the same effect (the priest casts it). If I rest until Consecrate is gone, there's no CTD. If I travel to a random location (I tried Deklo), then cast the spell and leave, there IS CTD so the bug isn't unique to the Meadows.

Something's fishy with this spell, I hope you guys have time to look at it. I almost feel like I've had this happen in earlier versions of C08 but can't say for sure. As of now, I can reproduce this bug at will on my machine, let's see if you can...

And I would have thought that a wizard's open / close spell would have automatically opened a chest such as this as early in the game as it is.

Open/close is a cantrip (fancy name for "useless"), it only opens/closes unlocked containers and doors. You're looking for lvl2 knock. If you roll 20 and can't open lock, it's the game's strange way of saying that your skill isn't enough. That chest's DC is very high (next to Crayfish, right?) My lvl3 Dex18 rogue couldn't open it unless I cast Cat's Grace on her. EDIT: Oh wait, you mean the tower. My lvl2 rogue had no trouble opening that, but she's Dex18. So, maybe you're just missing that one DC point? Try using lockslip grease...

I'm having a dickens of a time "chatting" with Lucky Lubash—I talk, I die. And oddly enough I have not run into the prisoners after dealing with the zombies and green goos... And the cloaks did nothin' even with the whole party wearing 'em. A barrel full of fun. <g>

Cloaks do nothing to zombies. W/o cloaks you don't get to talk to the ogre, and w/ cloaks AND good social skills, you get to avoid the fight.

[Spider Dwarf]

Originally Posted by Ausdoerrt

Open/close is a cantrip (fancy name for "useless"), it only opens/closes unlocked containers and doors. You're looking for lvl2 knock. If you roll 20 and can't open lock, it's the game's strange way of saying that your skill isn't enough. That chest's DC is very high (next to Crayfish, right?) My lvl3 Dex18 rogue couldn't open it unless I cast Cat's Grace on her. EDIT: Oh wait, you mean the tower. My lvl2 rogue had no trouble opening that, but she's Dex18. So, maybe you're just missing that one DC point? Try using lockslip grease...

Cloaks do nothing to zombies. W/o cloaks you don't get to talk to the ogre, and w/ cloaks AND good social skills, you get to avoid the fight.

Yeah, but I at least wanted to live for a minute or two. <g> That was the odd thing, even though I was wearing the cloaks, I walked in, went to talk to him (Luciano Lubash the Crusher) with my best diplomat and he went and ruined my day. He never took a nap either which he has done in the past. I'm not saying 'tis a bug, just an odd sequence of game play. I eventually sneak attacked him with my 2nd level thief and then ganged up on him. Pure hack and slash with not a nicety to be found. Not even any tactics to play on his bug, dumb butt.

And yeah, I realize the cantrips (open/close) are worthless as a set of lopsided dice, and I'll be darned if I'm going to pull my books off the shelfs to review, but a break once in a while would be nice. <g> I made it to 3rd level and this time the tower chest opened up. I'll have to wait for 4th and come back to the Moathouse to get one or two others. By the time I get to the last spot I should be just about ready to pop-a-lev.

Emridy Meadows was fun and like you, I got it handed to me several times. I eventually was able to double web 'Ol Bony Preacher and his Skeletal Singers which permitted, roughly, only one at a time to get to me. In the meantime I was chinking away, slowly, with arrows and bolts. I do love that battle!

This time I'm playing without a druid (1 ranger, 1 fighter, 1 cleric, 1 wizard & 1 thief) and Georgeous Gus and his fur rug just handed me my royal rumpus on a shield. <g> They both slipped a double web spell, one in front of the other and proceeded to turn me into mashed taters. I love it!

[Ausdoerrt]

I never recall Lubash taking a nap <__< The check for the conversation should be Bluff not Diplomacy iirc. I rarely use it...

Actually, this time around the bony priest was pretty easy to handle, since I was at lvl3 and have a full-fledged party of 6 people. It's just the bug that's really annoying.

Also, where is Mona?! I looked everywhere in Nulb. Did she move to another town?

[Necroticpus]

Originally Posted by Ausdoerrt

Also, where is Mona?! I looked everywhere in Nulb. Did she move to another town?

She's there in Nulb. Check next to the house that Skole built.

[Ausdoerrt]

I will, thanks.


Also, WEEEEIRD things are afoot. I'm getting my max Dex bonus constrained by items that shouldn't do it - rings, accessories, clothing etc etc, anything from rings of protection to farmer garb to gloves of Dexterity; all of them seem to have max bonus set to +3. The contradiction is tearing me apart, especially the one for Dexterity Gloves...

[Spider Dwarf]

Originally Posted by Ausdoerrt

I never recall Lubash taking a nap <__< The check for the conversation should be Bluff not Diplomacy iirc. I rarely use it...

Actually, this time around the bony priest was pretty easy to handle, since I was at lvl3 and have a full-fledged party of 6 people. It's just the bug that's really annoying.

Also, where is Mona?! I looked everywhere in Nulb. Did she move to another town?

Yeah, in the 5.7.2 game I quit he (Lubash) would sit down / take a nap for a moment or two. You could go in do a sneak attack on him. One time I killed him one way and then restarted and sneaked him for the heck of it. Any way to twist the fun. Actually this time I killed all the bugbears, went to town and when I came in I went down the stair in the ghoul room column to the zombie room. That is one of the chests I have to go back to. Then I tackled the Gnarley Gnoll Squadron. I'm going thru the Moathouse in a differing fashion this go around. I almost wish there was a "rumor" in Hommlet about the Lareth back door so I could sneak in there. Maybe a secret passage right into his room. <g>

As for "Ol Boney Butt I like to play tactics / chicken with them. Throw a couple of webs in a line, make 'em fight thru that will I plink at 'em. I keep two of my meats up front with a quick change melee / missile setup. I stay back to the right and eventually Boney gets fed up (after you make bone meal out of the others) and comes charging out. He ain't too bad outside his desecration circle. Yeah, I could fight it with a consecration but that is not my style.

There's a great spot, at the bottom right at the mouth of the chasm, for a tie in to another level. Someone in the temple needs you (if you're evil) to go and retrieve something that was left in the chasm at the Emridy Meadows Battle of Yore. Or if your good, Terjon remembers some time later that Y'Dey(?) left a special good item there in the chasm. It could be either a good or bad item depending on the party alignment. Or Jaroo wants it to keep it out of play to keep everything in harmony.

I ain't got to Nulb yet as you may have guessed so I can't comment on Mona. Don't spoil the surprise for me. <g>

[Shiningted]

I've never seen Lubash nap either, but his model has that animation as its 'special' (like the earth temple priests bowing, or Smyth hammering). The ogre in KotB scratches his ass

[Johnnyjy2k]

Hi im a new user and im having some troubles with this mod, im not exactly sure where i should post this so thought id do it in the discussion thread if this is wrong i apologize.

Anyways i dowloaded the mod and installed all the requirements that the readme said i needed, i extracted CO8 5.8 into the TOEE folder, however when i double click on the TFE-X executable like it says it replies with the following:

"the application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem"

ive reinstalled multiple times and yet it always comes out the same, i've tried different mirrors and still the same result, im not sure what ive done wrong but i was hoping someone here could help me.

Any help at all would be much appreciated.

[Ranth]

Johnny,

Which version of Windows are you using? Did you install patch 1 & 2 (not 3)? Did you install the other Microsoft dot net files?

[Necroticpus]

Originally Posted by Shiningted

The ogre in KotB scratches his ass

I don't ever recall being asked to model for that. I'm a little hurt because I don't think there's anyone more qualified to model for that action.

[Johnnyjy2k]

Originally Posted by Ranth

Johnny,

Which version of Windows are you using? Did you install patch 1 & 2 (not 3)? Did you install the other Microsoft dot net files?

XP, i installed patch 1 & 2 and the net framework 2.0, im considering completly deleteing eveything to do with it and trying a clean install and hope it helps, i believe i did install patch 3 at first but i replaced it with patch 2 once i was aware of the incompatabilities, it could be that but im unsure if that would stop a file working altogether :/

[Gaear]

Did you know: that you can go to the new Verbobonc in Co8 5.8.0 NC?

To do so, open the console and type:

game.areas[14] = 1

and press enter. This will put Verbocono on your Worldmap. There is nothing there yet, of course, but you can cruise the town and enjoy the sights.

Do NOT try this in 5.8.0 (standard), as your game will probably hang. Verbobonc is not there in 5.8.0 (standard).

[General Ghoul]

Originally Posted by Johnnyjy2k

XP, i installed patch 1 & 2 and the net framework 2.0, im considering completly deleteing eveything to do with it and trying a clean install and hope it helps, i believe i did install patch 3 at first but i replaced it with patch 2 once i was aware of the incompatabilities, it could be that but im unsure if that would stop a file working altogether :/

I can't get mine to work either. I already have the Front End installed, but when I try to activate 5.80 or 5.80NC, it hangs up. I give it plenty of time, but if I click anything on the computer, it locks up and I have to Ctrl-Alt-Del to get out of it. And on everytime I bring up the front end, I have to run the fixer to get the Dll file replace.

Any help?

[Ranth]

How much is plenty of time? It takes my comp up to 10 mins to load the mod. Mine too seems to lock up during the process. If you stop it in the middle, it screws up the activation and can disrupt game play. Can you try to activate it before you to go to bed so the comp has all night to power through the activation?

[Ausdoerrt]

I think it only appears to "hang", especially if you're doing sth else in background. Leave it be for a while, and it will "unhang" after activating. That's what happened to me anyway. Didn't the popup window warn NOT to ctrl-alt-del out of it, specifically for people with urges to do so?

[Gaear]

Exactly. 10 minutes should be the upper bound though. For me it's maybe 3-4, but 5.8 NC is larger than 5.7 by 50 MB or so, so it stands to reason it would take longer.

Also, if you ctrl-alt-del out, task manager will say that the app is "not responding," but this is a lie.

[Spider Dwarf]

I beg to differ. The other day the 5.8 activation did hang my computer.

I started the activation, waited about a half hour with no results, and went to dinner. I figured after 4 hours it would be done taking into account the warnings about the lengthy activation time. After turning my monitor back on I got some "Ahh Crap" message from Front End. I clicked out of it, restarted my computer and started the process again. The second time around it worked flawlessly and no problems since.

[Necroticpus]

Is...it...possible? Did they really just modify this most annoying thing in the game?

I just killed a couple of black puddings with ranseurs and longswords, and they DID NOT split into two! Someone was listening to my prayers!

I will miss the times of just sitting at the site of the Hedrack fight and creating 30+ black puddings and then killing them all with fireballs, lol. The game gets VERY laggy when there's 30+ black puddings stumbling around in one place.

I really didn't expect them to modify this particular thing but I'm not complaining. I just really hated it when you're trying to move everyone away from the puddings so the wizard can let loose but one gets in close enough for an AoE and then suddenly there's two+ and you're right back into it again, lol. Irritating.

[Hugh Manetee]

Switch to blunt instruments and mash them like potatoes.

[Ausdoerrt]

Necro, you sure those were black puddings not grey oozes? Also, Double-check their resistances, maybe you confused them with sth else.

[General Ghoul]

Originally Posted by Gaear

Exactly. 10 minutes should be the upper bound though. For me it's maybe 3-4, but 5.8 NC is larger than 5.7 by 50 MB or so, so it stands to reason it would take longer.

Also, if you ctrl-alt-del out, task manager will say that the app is "not responding," but this is a lie.

I gave it 20 minutes, then an hour and a half, still no luck.

[Shiningted]

My old Celeron takes a lot longer than 10 minutes. If you click on it while it is activating, it will indeed say "not responding", but it should still be chugging away.

(I realise this is not what you guys are experiencing but I am mentioning it for anyone who thinks their PC is so new this should all happen in a couple minutes or its a bug).

[Ausdoerrt]

Any word on THIS bug I mentioned? I prevented it by reloading and deleting the bugged save, but now the problem popped up with Ronald yet again (thankfully the rest of the party is still unaffected).

[The Royal Canadian]

Hi
I had the exact same thing happen to me. I downloaded 5.8 NC, unpacked it into the root folder, started the Front End, clicked on Activate, and waited. After about 90 minutes (I did other things in the meantime) the module had not activated, so I shut down my lpatop and went to sleep. The next night 5.8NC activated in about 4 minutes with no problems.
The Royal Canadian

Originally Posted by Spider Dwarf

I beg to differ. The other day the 5.8 activation did hang my computer.

I started the activation, waited about a half hour with no results, and went to dinner. I figured after 4 hours it would be done taking into account the warnings about the lengthy activation time. After turning my monitor back on I got some "Ahh Crap" message from Front End. I clicked out of it, restarted my computer and started the process again. The second time around it worked flawlessly and no problems since.

[Shiningted]

Ausdoerrt - were you encumbered, maybe? Doesn't that put a limit on Dex or something?