[Bug]Mulahey Dialog loop

Sandman

Forgot to mention this earlier in my game and almost about to finish it, but the end fight with Mulahey (Nashkel Mines), I was able to talk to him twice and he summoned an extra set of skeletons and such. I imagine I could of probably done this several times over as he just repeated what he previously told me.

Avenger_teambg

Can't reproduce. Anyone?

hzf

Working as intended?

When he gets to low life he initiates dialogue. If you choose the wrong option then more skeletons and kobolds spawn. This is not a bug, though.

Balquo

Yeah, he uses the same dialogue just when he "surrenders"

LaughingMan

Last night I had this happen, if I showed him mercy we'd loop back to him summoning his minions again and he would continue to do that every time until I just killed him outright.

Durlachion

I checked the dialogue script. It is not a real loop, but nonetheless there is something that simply feels not right:

Summary of a possible encounter between our hero and Mulahey:
Mulahey: "Did Tazok send you to kill me... *blubber snivel* UNFAIR *blubber*! (StrRef: 770)"
CHARNAME: "Tru dat, gimme your treachery! (StrRef: 5803)"
Mulahey: "*more blubber* Yeah fine, take all the cool stuff around (StrRef: 771)"

So, now comes the first strange part. Mulahey doesn't even let you enough time to walk to his chest, he simply falls into a rage:
Mulahey: "Fools, you'll never have the chance to take anything! Minions, come forth and kill the intruders! (StrRef: 776)"
Actions: spawn 6 kobolds, 4 skeletons, go 'serious-cleric-mode'

Following scene contains severe violence and hence I won't say how badly Mulahey got beat up by my rabbit familiar :-D

Back to topic: Next dialogue triggers if less than 50% of Mulaheys HP are left and sets TalkedToMulahey from '0' to '1'.
Mulahey: "Ah, spare me, blablabla (StrRef: 773)"
CHARNAME: "Yeah, I hate blood, lets be friends. Tell me about your life... (StrRef: 5803)"
Mulahey: "Thanks bro - you may now plunder this chest in the corner! (StrRef: 775)"

And now, again without even catching some breath:
Mulahey: "Fools, you'll never have the chance to take anything! Minions, come forth and kill the intruders! (StrRef: 776)"
Actions: spawn 6 kobolds, 4 skeletons, go 'serious-cleric-mode'

Since the dialogue triggers only if Mulahey is below 50% HP and TalkedToMulahey is '0' it should never lead into a loop... But I find it irritating that he

• doesn't even let me some time to go to the chest
• uses the exact same dialogue line twice
• does NOT spawn kobolds and skeletons if you rather want to finish him than spare his worthless life.

Edit: Ah, well... vanilla BG handles this the same way. But I don't think it is pretty...

Cera

This happened in the original game. Really didn't matter to me since the mobs are easily handled. it only happens the first and second time. he doesn't trigger conversation afterwards.

The guy above explained it much more thoroughly.

Avenger_teambg

Yeah, this is not fine, and i'm sure the original scriptors in bg1 made some error.
It is just unclear what their intent was, even more unclear than with other cases where we made a change yet people complained afterwards. Some people might actually miss the second wave of cheap xp

Aristillius

It seems quite likely that it was intended for him to feign a surrender, probably even more than once. The mixed signals should be fixed if he just says something different the second time he attacks.

I remember playing this and thinking "maybe I can get more info out of him", but he attacked me two times and I was all like "ok, youre dead dude". Never felt like it was a bug tho, just a little too simply made (for lack of a better term).

Mathsorcerer

There is an internal link back to text response 6, which is the one where he summons his help even if he already summoned them. Mulahe.dlg is on my list of things to fix and it should be fairly easy--assign actions DropInventory() and EscapeArea() if he offers to surrender and you accept then end dialog then change the action list for state 7 to be only Enemy() without all the CreateCreatures.

Durlachion

Or change the second "Fools, you'll never have a chance..." into something slightly different and not only keep the 2nd spawn for existing dialogue routes, but also expand it to the "I-won't-let-you-surrender-answer" of charname... Most people are bored from the low difficulty of BG:EE, if I read this correctly between the lines :-) Two Spawns of 6 kobolds and 4 skeletons should add some difficulty :-D
And - as a note besides - I believe, there is still a third dialogue that avoids every combat ;-)

Hope, that made sense... I am drunk as a skunk and english is not my mother tongue. HA!

Cerevant

I came across this again, and it was pretty jarring. I've redmined it, and will take a look at a fix.

agris

@Mathsorcerer I think Mulahey has to die, based on the PC's dream narratives (you interacting with his corpse).

Cerevant

Great point - I was planning on having him die, and this is a really good reason to force it. My plan was to set a trigger so the summon only happens once, and I'm looking at ways to put a delay between the fist dialog and "Fools!...".

Currently, chapter 3 triggers when you pick up the letter, but I'm thinking of changing it to either:
* have letter and Mulahey dead
* have letter and/or? Mulahey dead, leave area

The code for the second is already there (with an or), it is just pointless because it will have already triggered in the interior area.

I'm at work, so I can't test this: can someone with a talented theif / invisible sneak into the area and try to steal the letter without killing Mulahey? can you escape the area before he is dead?

SirK8

Are we positive that this is a bug? I've had this happen in vanilla and it seemed like it was intentional. He fakes surrender so he can summon minions, then when you beat him down he's all.. ok now I really surrender, if you buy his sh*t the second time you get more minions to deal with... always seemed reasonable to me. I'd be sad to see this encounter changed

Cerevant

But that's not how it plays out - take a look at the (paraphrased) dialog above -

First he offers the stuff, but then doesn't give you a chance to take it
- the only problem I have with this is that the dialog doesn't break, and he doesn't even give you a chance to move toward the chest before summon / attack. The words in the dialog don't make sense.

So, after being tricked, you start to put the beatdown on him and he surrenders. Then he pulls the same line of dialog / summon / attack again
- I might even buy allowing the second summon, but the same line of dialog just feels wrong, and again, he doesn't give you a chance to react.

I think this encounter was probably better until they started mucking with the chapter trigger. There is some overly complex logic in both AR5404 and AR5405 that points to more than one programmer trying to solve a chapter transition problem. (oddly, the logic is not what I'd call very complex, just more complex than it needs to be, and duplicated in both areas) I think it is possible to change the encounter to make it have a better flow without really changing what happens.

Jalily

@Cerevant Here's the original topic about that if you haven't seen it:
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/248/chapter-3-doesnt-trigger-properly-if-mulay-is-killed-outside-of-his-lair-0824

Cerevant

Ah yes, that covers the chapter transition, but not the dialog. Still, I think the dialog break was one stab at fixing the problem by earlier devs that didn't really solve the problem: running to the chest and grabbing the letter, ending the chapter. The thread you mention gives another solution (taking the letter out of the chest and putting it on Mulahey) which is another clever approach.

I suggested in the bug report that we just hold the chapter transition until the party leaves the cave.