Headbomb's big list of weapons and items issues [Part 5]
I'm finally home after a week, and with a new version of NI, so here's part 5
AMUL15
* Description mentions: "Range 0" and "Area of Effect: The wearer", which seem kinda weird/redundant to me, given that right above you have "Casts the spell Shield on the wearer".
* Magical effects seems to have some duplication in them. Two AC bonuses, 2 Play sounds, 2 Protection from Spells, 7 Set color glow pulses... Not necessarily a bug though.
AMUL17
* I believe spells are usually capitalized, and most of them aren't here. Also I don't think there's ever been an ESP spell in the BG series, so it seems a bit weird to mention it here.
AROW06
* I mentionned some problems with this one in [part 2], but I missed that this arrow seems to deal 0d2 + 6d6 (Save vs. Spell for half) instead of 1d6 + 6d6 (Save vs. Spell for half). You might want to change the description to simply "6d6 explosion upon impact (Save vs. Spell for half)" to reflect the behaviour, or make it 1d6 + 6d6 to match the description.
ARROW12
* Description says the duration is 20 seconds, behaviour is 60. Something is off here. Item is undroppable however.
AROW1A
* None of the other arrows have "Set color" global effect. This one has two. No idea what this stuff actually does, but I thought I'd point out the discrepancy.
AX1H07
* Mentionning the duration of the miscast effect (real time 100 seconds) in the description would be nice. Also 100 seconds seems like an odd duration.
BOOT12
* Duration of stoneskin would be nice to know in the description (real time 3600 seconds, in game 12 hours)
BPNOTE1
* There's a magical effect that does nothing on this item.
BULL09 / HAMM03
* One refers to "electricity damage" and the other "electrical damage". It should "electricity" for consistancy, I believe.
CLCK04
* Mentionning the Polymorph duration in the description would be nice (real time 120 seconds, in game 2 turns)
DART03
* Description says 7 rounds, behaviour is 45 seconds. Should be 42 seconds.
DART05
* Description should be updated from "Hit target takes 1 point of damage every 3 seconds up to a maximum of 40 or until a Cure Poison spell is cast on the target" to simply "Hit target takes 1 point of damage every 3 seconds for 40 seconds". First, because drinking an antidote should also remove the poison and no other poison effect specifically mentions that the damage lasts for a duration unless cured. Second because the original phrasing is ambiguous, and it's unclear whether it means up to 40 damage, or up to 40 seconds.
FIRESEED
* Description should mention that it's 2d8 (Save vs. Spell for half).
HELM18
* It might be better to say 2 Hit Points per turn instead of 2 Hit Points per minute.
MISC40 to MISC45 / MISC78 / MISC84
* There's a magical effect that does nothing on thiese item.
MISC75
* Description should be updated from "Hit target failing a Save vs. Poison suffers 1 point of poison damage per second up to a total of 15" to simply "Hit target failing a Save vs. Poison suffers 1 point of poison damage per second for 15 seconds" per same reasoning as above
NEBELT
* "deerhide" should probably be "deer hide"
POTN21
* "This feeling will last for the duration of the enchantment or until dispelled." should probably be replaced with "The effect lasts for 5 turns or until dispelled." per usual flavour text.
POTN36
* Description says the duration is 3 hours, which should be 900 real time seconds. Actual duration is 1260 seconds, which is corresponds to 4.2 hours.
WAND02
* Description says 15 rounds, duration is 100 real times seconds. 15 rounds is 90 real time seconds.
As a side question, why do items needs so many properties of "set color glow pulses" (AMUL15), "set color" (e.g. BOW01) properties, or "AC bonus" (e.g. LEAT09)?
AMUL15
* Description mentions: "Range 0" and "Area of Effect: The wearer", which seem kinda weird/redundant to me, given that right above you have "Casts the spell Shield on the wearer".
* Magical effects seems to have some duplication in them. Two AC bonuses, 2 Play sounds, 2 Protection from Spells, 7 Set color glow pulses... Not necessarily a bug though.
AMUL17
* I believe spells are usually capitalized, and most of them aren't here. Also I don't think there's ever been an ESP spell in the BG series, so it seems a bit weird to mention it here.
AROW06
* I mentionned some problems with this one in [part 2], but I missed that this arrow seems to deal 0d2 + 6d6 (Save vs. Spell for half) instead of 1d6 + 6d6 (Save vs. Spell for half). You might want to change the description to simply "6d6 explosion upon impact (Save vs. Spell for half)" to reflect the behaviour, or make it 1d6 + 6d6 to match the description.
ARROW12
* Description says the duration is 20 seconds, behaviour is 60. Something is off here. Item is undroppable however.
AROW1A
* None of the other arrows have "Set color" global effect. This one has two. No idea what this stuff actually does, but I thought I'd point out the discrepancy.
AX1H07
* Mentionning the duration of the miscast effect (real time 100 seconds) in the description would be nice. Also 100 seconds seems like an odd duration.
BOOT12
* Duration of stoneskin would be nice to know in the description (real time 3600 seconds, in game 12 hours)
BPNOTE1
* There's a magical effect that does nothing on this item.
BULL09 / HAMM03
* One refers to "electricity damage" and the other "electrical damage". It should "electricity" for consistancy, I believe.
CLCK04
* Mentionning the Polymorph duration in the description would be nice (real time 120 seconds, in game 2 turns)
DART03
* Description says 7 rounds, behaviour is 45 seconds. Should be 42 seconds.
DART05
* Description should be updated from "Hit target takes 1 point of damage every 3 seconds up to a maximum of 40 or until a Cure Poison spell is cast on the target" to simply "Hit target takes 1 point of damage every 3 seconds for 40 seconds". First, because drinking an antidote should also remove the poison and no other poison effect specifically mentions that the damage lasts for a duration unless cured. Second because the original phrasing is ambiguous, and it's unclear whether it means up to 40 damage, or up to 40 seconds.
FIRESEED
* Description should mention that it's 2d8 (Save vs. Spell for half).
HELM18
* It might be better to say 2 Hit Points per turn instead of 2 Hit Points per minute.
MISC40 to MISC45 / MISC78 / MISC84
* There's a magical effect that does nothing on thiese item.
MISC75
* Description should be updated from "Hit target failing a Save vs. Poison suffers 1 point of poison damage per second up to a total of 15" to simply "Hit target failing a Save vs. Poison suffers 1 point of poison damage per second for 15 seconds" per same reasoning as above
NEBELT
* "deerhide" should probably be "deer hide"
POTN21
* "This feeling will last for the duration of the enchantment or until dispelled." should probably be replaced with "The effect lasts for 5 turns or until dispelled." per usual flavour text.
POTN36
* Description says the duration is 3 hours, which should be 900 real time seconds. Actual duration is 1260 seconds, which is corresponds to 4.2 hours.
WAND02
* Description says 15 rounds, duration is 100 real times seconds. 15 rounds is 90 real time seconds.
As a side question, why do items needs so many properties of "set color glow pulses" (AMUL15), "set color" (e.g. BOW01) properties, or "AC bonus" (e.g. LEAT09)?
Post edited by Jalily on
3
Comments
The AC effects aren't duplicates. One sets the base AC to 4 and the other is a bonus of 2 against missile weapons, as per the spell. The uncapitalized words are status effects, not spells (except psionics). Done. It's always "electrical damage." Done. Done. Asp's Nest currently does 2 damage per second instead of 1 damage every 3 seconds. @CamDawg? Already done. Done. Went with "Hit target suffers 1 point of poison damage per second for 15 seconds (Save vs. Poison negates)." Assuming you mean POTN21, I replaced "duration of the enchantment with "5 turns," but I think "feeling" is okay since it's flavor text.
In the original BG items without headers couldn't be stacked, which is why you see so many of the old gems have the extraneous magical header. These are generally harmless.
For glow pulses, they just look cool. It's better feedback than an expiry sound and less annoying than a repeating animation.
I'm not sure why they chose to do item coloring via effects. There are something like 21 different coloring settings for a characters: a handful you get to pick at creation, a couple more you can change at any time via your inventory screen, and the remainder are usually set with these opcodes on your equipment.
And as for armor, you'll notice the first AC effect sets the base and then they typically get some extra bonuses/penalties against certain types of damage based on their armor type. Shields do something similar in that they give a bonus against all attacks and then use specific bonuses/penalties to get their overall protection correct. Large shields have a second AC bonus vs. missile (for large), small shields a penalty vs. missile, etc. to get it all worked out.