Lareth won't speak NC 7.1 (spoilers)

[Obadiah]

Playing a NG party, in the moathouse, big battle with the bad guys. I have a party of seven. I kill a couple of guys, they holler for Lareth to come help out. He shows up and starts casting spells, attacking, etc. Before, he would start "saying" his dialogue in the battle so you would get to hear it since he is now scripted to come and help. The last couple of times I have fought the battle, he hasn't said his bit during the battle. I have it saved right before the fight, so I keep going back in, hoping he will do his little trash talk. Also, when I get him injured down, he doesn't stop the fight to start the dialogue options to free him / join him etc. This leads to me killing him and reading his journal, but the temple doesn't show up on the map, even after reading the journal. Nulb shows up, but the temple does not. Also, it doesn't trigger the "Lolth help me" routine with the spiders and what not.

I've done the battle like 5 times now, same results. Sometimes he'll actually give his speech, but he never breaks into the dialogue option when injured. Not sure why this is happening. I can post a save file somewhere if this is thought to be a bug, or maybe I am missing something. Any ideas?

[gazra_1971]

The spider reinforcements only appear in the game if Lareth interrupts the combat and talks to you (bargaining for his life). Sometimes during that combat, I have killed Lareth so quickly that he didn't have a chance to bargain for his life and summon the spider reinforcements. I'm pretty sure that Lareth always used to bargain for his life and summon spider reinforcements every time during that combat before Sitra Achara's Reactive Moathouse mod was implemented in the Circle of Eight Modpack, and that Lareth only started not interrupting the combat and not bargaining for his life and not summoning the spider reinforcements sometimes during that combat after Sitra Achara's Reactive Moathouse mod was implemented.

Sitra Achara's Reactive Moathouse mod:

Originally posted by Sitra Achara:

Lareth joins his men in combat after two casualties.
Spider reinforcement only happens if casualties are greater than 4.
Initiating combat with Lareth without having talked to him first will trigger a series of float message in which he speaks his lines.
Injuring Lareth will halt the sequence, and elicit an appropriate response from him.
If you somehow attack Lareth in his room without having fought his men, they will actually join the fight.
Lareth will break up combat and offer his Necklace / Temple escort as usual. His dialogue hasn't been changed.

I believe that reading Lareth's diary/journal doesn't add the location of The Temple of Elemental Evil to your world map. As far as I am aware, the only ways to add the location of The Temple of Elemental Evil to your world map is to do one of the following:
1. agree to spare Lareth's life on the condition that he will lead you to The Temple of Elemental Evil.
2. read the assassin's note
3. bribe Rannos Davl and Gremag to reveal the location of the Temple of Elemental Evil in exchange for your silence about the traders' real purpose for being in Hommlet.
4. talk to Otis (Nulb blacksmith)
5. either talk to Alira (in the Waterside Hostel in Nulb) (I believe that you need to be evil in order to get anywhere with her) or steal her map or take her map after killing her.

[Obadiah]

****UPDATE****

Thanks for the info. I have been testing the battle for a bit now and have discovered that if you get Lareth critical but have anyone in melee range, he continues to attack and will not start his combat break dialogue. If you move everyone away from him (at least 5 feet), he will start his dialogue. I think (but have not tested it yet) that the charge attack is what puts the characters too close to him to start the event dialogue. I'll have to test it some more to be sure. In any case, he will start it if you get him critical and move away from him. Not so much a bug as a minor annoyance that could use some tweaking. That said, the 7.01 NC is awesome, and this is by no means a complaint against your awesome work.

[Gaear]

The speech thing is just random behavior I suspect, being as it's not done via the typical dialog function but through some other script. ToEE often just does or doesn't run scripts on a whim.

[Sitra Achara]

Cannot replicate; can you upload a savegame that demonstrates this? Preferably just before entering combat with Lareth.

instructions:

Each save is comprised of 4 files - *.gsi, *.co8, *.tfaf, *.tfai
Pack them into a zip file and upload either here (if smaller than 400kB) or mediafire / rapidshare.
You can identify the correct save by the jpg file with the matching name.

[Obadiah]

Bah. Sorry, I overwrote that game. I figured that it was one of those things that Gaer stated, sometimes scripts just don't run. I can always try it again on my next run through. I did determine that it doesn't matter if you charge attack or not. If everyone moves out of melee range, he will start his game stop dialogue. Not sure how scripting works exactly, but maybe it prioritizes melee attacks over the dialogue? Anyway, sorry about the save, if it happens again I'll keep a save and post it.

[Sitra Achara]

Well, the thing is, I don't see anything in the scripts that should cause this to happen. And in my case, he most certainly did initiate dialogue with one of my guys at melee range.

From what you said, you were able to consistently reproduce it, so it doesn't sound like a one-off fluke. Unfortunately, debugging that sort of thing usually requires replicating the exact conditions in which it occurs. (as I said, it worked fine in my case, and I haven't seen other complaints either, so it sounds like something very specific)

Did you have NPCs by any chance? What was the location of their portrait in the bottom row?

[Obadiah]

No NPC's. 7 regular made characters. My "face" character was in the first slot down below. NG party, 3rd level. I did the dialogue out front and intimidated the guard to run away. I ran in to the room to try and get as deep as I could before the "battle" started. Normal play ensued - glitterdust as many as I can, use the figurine to summon a monster to help, etc. After 2 deaths, the lieutenant called Lareth out to help as they were taking casualties. he runs out, casts a spell, starts fighting witht he fungi helper. I finish off the other baddies, set my cleric up to counterspell Lareth and rush in my tanks to fight Lareth in melee. My mage (now out of spells), plinks away with her bow. I get him to critical, he fights until I kill him. I reload, same story, this time I 5 foot step back when he is critical, he initiates the combat stop dialogue. I bribe him but refuse in the end, he calls for the spiders, fight continues and baddies die. BAH! wish I had the save. Well, like I said, I'll get you one if it happens again.

Maybe if he encounters the fungi first instead of an actual pc? again, I don't know much about it, just guessing. Alas, there's always next time.