Weird PST item/label/description/rule questions
lujo
Member Posts: 236
I'm doing this great big item templating thing and I've so far run into a number of things worth reporting as bugs or as things in need of tweaking. And then there's things that just stump me and which I don't know the answer to... But someone probably does!
1) What does "intoxicates wearer" mean, exactly? Are some rules implemented for Beer Goggles or is it in the description just for laughs?
2) "Induces blindness" in Lens of the Bat? On top of the effects listed, or are the effects listed an explanation of the effects of this blindness?
3) Do Ignus' Terror and Horror actually work in an AoE around the casting point (like the description says) or are they just single target (like they seem to be)?
4) If you put junk into a container, it won't necessarily stack, but if you take it into your inventory it does. What gives?
5) When exactly did Lothar stop buying skulls? I seem to remember him buying them, the Planescape materials say he'll give at least a copper piece for them, but no. Did some modder mess this up and it ended up implemented in EE by accident?
6) Are the blue screen flashes from Axe of Torment and the brown ones from Swarm Curse on purpose? Anyone have any idea how to prevent them?
7) Did anyone ever hear of a mod which would make "cool spell animation time freeze effects" actualy freeze time instead of letting DoT spells work on effectively paralyzed enemies?
8) If Cloudkill kills many enemies, the floating text on the screen displays the reward only for one. Does it actually give only that much XP? (I could check but maybe someone knows)
9) Why are a lot of the cutscenes involving character models in EE in very low res? Has anyone else noticed this?
10) Anyone else have the dreambuilder sequences displayed strangely and to the side of the screen?
11) Why are there 2 seemingly identical charcoal charms in the game?
12) Why are there 2 seemingly identical false contracts in the game files?
13) How, exactly, does the Negative Token work? So that I can put it on it's actual description.
How about your questions?
1) What does "intoxicates wearer" mean, exactly? Are some rules implemented for Beer Goggles or is it in the description just for laughs?
2) "Induces blindness" in Lens of the Bat? On top of the effects listed, or are the effects listed an explanation of the effects of this blindness?
3) Do Ignus' Terror and Horror actually work in an AoE around the casting point (like the description says) or are they just single target (like they seem to be)?
4) If you put junk into a container, it won't necessarily stack, but if you take it into your inventory it does. What gives?
5) When exactly did Lothar stop buying skulls? I seem to remember him buying them, the Planescape materials say he'll give at least a copper piece for them, but no. Did some modder mess this up and it ended up implemented in EE by accident?
6) Are the blue screen flashes from Axe of Torment and the brown ones from Swarm Curse on purpose? Anyone have any idea how to prevent them?
7) Did anyone ever hear of a mod which would make "cool spell animation time freeze effects" actualy freeze time instead of letting DoT spells work on effectively paralyzed enemies?
8) If Cloudkill kills many enemies, the floating text on the screen displays the reward only for one. Does it actually give only that much XP? (I could check but maybe someone knows)
9) Why are a lot of the cutscenes involving character models in EE in very low res? Has anyone else noticed this?
10) Anyone else have the dreambuilder sequences displayed strangely and to the side of the screen?
11) Why are there 2 seemingly identical charcoal charms in the game?
12) Why are there 2 seemingly identical false contracts in the game files?
13) How, exactly, does the Negative Token work? So that I can put it on it's actual description.
How about your questions?
1
Comments
2) The item applies the "Blindness" status effect as well as a -4 penalty to damage and THAC0 to the wearer. Blindness would automatically result in a hefty THAC0 penalty in BG/IWD. I don't know if this also applies to PST.
4) Junk is a stackable item (up to 99 per stack). I don't know why it isn't auto-stacked in containers. If you refer to original container content, this is probably intended.
5) I don't think Lothar will buy any skulls except as a replacement for Morte. However, he provides a store where you can purchase some items and make use of his healing service.
8) There may be a limit how many messages are buffered by the game before they are displayed. I don't think that you'll miss XP because of it.
9) This is a technical restriction. For a number of cutscenes the visible map background region is limited (e.g. see map AR3017). This is a limitation from classic PST, which had a fixed screen resolution. They could probably save some storage space or loading time that way, since the regions are usually scattered across a single map.
10) It worked for me. It could be a zooming issue, or maybe it depends on the screen resolution.
11) One of the many puzzles of the IE games.
12) See 11).
13) There is nothing in the item file that indicates it could be used as a ward against shadows. Maybe it's hardcoded, there is a mention of the token file in the game executable. I can't say what it is for though. The charged effect (Hold Shadows) appears to be correctly implemented, however.
X) Blindness/Intoxication - TNO can't get drunk in-game, you can actually discover this by drinking at the Smoldering Corpse and talking to the bartender, Barkis. Which just adds to the confusion about these "status effect inducing items" - what status effects exist and work in PST?
The thing which induces blindness also lists it's status effects as... the effects you get from the spell "Blind" and "Vilquar's Eye" (also a "blind" variant). I I'm confused about whether the efects listed are just an explanation of what "blind" means, or do they stack on top?
What also doesn't help is that PST doesn't display status effects on character portraits, which I can tell you is a big PITA, because Embalm (and other "Aid" variants) don't stack and extra copies get wasted if you cast them while one is in effect. And you can't easily tell if one is in efect.
There's an idea for a mod - displaying status effects, buffs and debuffs on portraits a-la BG. It'd make a very good official feature request, too. I'd pay money for it. Yeah, I figure it was intended in original containers, I just didn't figure it'll not stack when you put it in other ones. Just a random bit of weirdness. I know about his store, but the thing is that he used to buy skulls - I remember reading forum discussions where people were discussing how he pays rather decent money for wererat skulls. EDIT: But then again, I read discussion about how it was insane on the dev's part to not implement Lothar buying skulls in the game, as he does this in the sourcebooks. Ah, this is good to know! It looks quite like ass, and it might be a rather good idea to change it. Could you teach me your gamefile searching prowess to help me make formal complaints about this sort of nonsense?
Also - thanks for the insight and the answers!
1) Did 2nd Edition rules assume that an Enchanted +1 weapon automatically has +1 to hit?
Or did THAC0 notation cause things to be messy so that you have to put both Enchanted +1 AND THAC0 +1 on items?
What does Enchated +1 actually do in-game in PST, under the hood? And does an "Enchanted +1, THAC0 +1" translate to "+1 damage, +1 to hit" or "+1 damage, +2 to hit"?
Very important question for templating reasons. (It's also really hard to tell whether weapons are giving proper bonuses for some reason).
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2) There seems to be 2 sets of non-dropable invisibe monster items in the game. There's a set which uses the notation:
IDAG1D10.ITM (means: Invisible Dagger 1-10 dmg)
and then there's the set which uses this notation:
INVDAGM1.ITM (means: Dagger for Medium Enemy type 1)
What's up with all that? Is the game for some reason using 2X as many monster items than it needs? Or is one set unused completely?
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Oh and 3) If there are about 50-ish or a 100 unused, outdated copies of exisiting items, how exactly would one go about safely deleting them?
- It is the most common for enchantment = +THAC0 & Damage, but not mandatory.
- Enchantment level = It can hit creatures not immune to that enchantment level.
- Any THAC0/Damage bonus it has for any reason should still be listed separately from it's enchantment level.
2) and 3)
- Some variants from both sets don't appear to be used, but too much of PSTEE is hardcoded to give you a real answer to that.
EDIT: It seems to be what fist weapons are flagged as, but does that then mean you could actually use a random unused proficiency and have it called "Teeth" so Morte would be actually profficient with Teeth, and Teeth would belong to the "Teeth" category?
Would be rather cool if it was the case
for example +1th/+1dm is normal, +1/+1, +1 fire damage is also normal; +1/+0, +1d3 fire damage would also be acceptable i'd say, but something in the description would have to confirm that it's not such an effective slashing weapon
however +0th/+1dm could never be a "sword +1"
also, +2th/+1dm could never be a "sword +1"
however +0th/+1dm, +1AC could, maybe, be a "sword +1" / on the other hand +1th/+0dm, +1AC is normal and conventional, i'm pretty certain
also +1th/+2dm (+1 from enchantment and +1 from base weapon form, i.e. some exotic weapon) is normal
What exactly determines how many HD creatures have, and what exactly does the spell Cloudkill take into account? I know HD mostly means "levels", but is this how that is determined by the engine?
When looking at a .CRE file - which numbers mean "Cloudkill proofing" when it comes to HD?
And also - does anyone know whether giving a .CRE extra levels does anything, like give it extra health, make it capable or incapable of spellcasting and such?
1) Is the Mirror of Imaging supposed to have charges? Or are they supposed to be one-use items? I just had one not get spent after using it, but it might be related to 4 or 5.
2) How about Ashes of the Pabulum, the Trelon summoning jar? It's not displaying any charges and seems to go on for ever...
3) Anyone try the heart of the Fosterer? Whats it's deal?
4) Has anyone tried the anti-magic shell thingy which is in the game files and can be restored to the game, except for me? Anyone know exactly what it does? Because I just tried it and it seemed to go on for ever (that is until I rested).
5) Anyone know spells or items with charges to behave weirdly in the Modron Maze?
Items like the Ashes of the Pabulum and Heart of the Fosterer store global variables, once it reaches a certain value the item is destroyed upon use. Both have 3 uses. I'm guessing this was done to prevent you from recharging them by selling them to stores.
Ant-Magic shell applies a variety of effects to every creature within a pulsing radius around the caster: The caster has 2 other effects (one for the visual radius indicator, another to pulse the effects and display the globe animation)
It lasts one hour of in-game time (300 seconds).