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Tresset's fixes for issues for IWD spells in SCS v33.

TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,268
edited July 2021 in General Modding
After years of being tempted to try SCS, I have just now finally given in. I am liking it a lot so far, but I am only just beginning to figure out how things work in SCS.

Anyway, I am using the component which Adds the IWD spells into BG, and, having never played IWD before, I got quite confused by the Mold Touch spell when my druid got to her 3rd level spells. The spell description clearly mentioned that the spell should spread and infect other creatures, but it was not doing that at all... Eventually I looked up the spell in a clean install of IWD:EE and I discovered that SCS seems to have forgotten some of the components necessary for the spell to propagate to other creatures. I decided to try adding these components to my game by making a quick Weidu installer for them, and, whaddaya know, It worked! The Mold Touch disease now spreads to other nearby creatures as I assume the spell was intended to do!

So now I am uploading my humble little fix here so that anyone else who uses this component of SCS can experience a functional Mold Touch spell! Note that I have only tested this fix in BG1:EE, but I assume it will work in BG2:EE or the vanilla games as well. This little fix does not add the full Mold Touch spell to the game, it only adds the files missing in SCS into the game; imported directly from IWD:EE.

In a similar vein, my Druid reached level 4 spells and found that the Thorn Spray spell was offering a save to avoid all effects, when the description (which I will assume is the actual intent for the spell) says there should be no save. I made a fix for this too, just in case anyone is interested.

Finally deciding to try SCS in BG2 I discovered that the prebuff version of Entropy Shield (cast by various enemy priests at the start of combat) could not be removed in any way due to an error in setting its subtype. I am uploading a fix that corrects this spell to use the proper subtype so it can actually be removed by the spells that were meant to remove it. The primary version of this spell was not affected by this issue and is unchanged.

Playing Further in BG2 with SCS, I found that there was a thing called Demon Binding. There are these books that teach you a skill which allows you to control summoned demons like they were regular summons. This does not seem to work quite as intended however, since the demons are changed into allies by an incorrect script command. I have made a fix for the demon's scripts which will grant a demon binding player full control of the summoned demons. I also noticed that the summoned demons could not attack Liches as intended, so I fixed that too.
Post edited by Tresset on

Comments

  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,754
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,268
    Ok, knowing me, I will keep finding minor issues and bugs in SCS and feel compelled to fix them. Because of this, I am changing the thread title and purpose so that it can hold any fixes I make to SCS. I Really hope @DavidW doesn't mind my meddling with his wonderous mod, but when I see bugs, I feel I have to fix them.
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,268
    I updated the mold touch fix a bit. The previous fix restored the functionality a of the spell, but did not include certain visual and sound effects that would actually allow one to tell if the mold was actually spreading or not. I have now added the effects to the fix, so you will now have visual and audio confirmation that the mold is spreading.
  • _Luke__Luke_ Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 1,535
    edited December 2020
    FWIW, Thorn Spray DOES offer a Save vs. Death in the v2.6 beta (and the spell description states that too...)

    So you might want to check that the Special Flag – Save for Half (BIT8) is set on opcode #12...
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,268
    @Luke93 I am aware that what you describe is the spell's correct behavior in IWD. The thing is, if you use the component to bring the IWD spells to the BG games, you will notice that the description was changed. Being a modder, I know this means that someone had to deliberately write up a different description. This is why I am assuming that the changed description is the behavior intended for this spell in BG. I know for certain that some of the IWD spells were rebalanced for use in BG with this component, and I assume that this is one of them. Either way the spell was bugged. It was offering a save vs. death to avoid all damage, which doesn't match either IWD or the description used by this component.
  • DavidWDavidW Member Posts: 823
    Thanks - and I don't mind at all, quite the contrary.

    Mold touch: SCS uses an automated system to recursively collect resources used by spells, but I wasn't aware of a subtlety in how the Disease Opcode works that selects a secondary spell as a default - hence the resource got missed. Will fix.

    Thorn Spray: take this as a good object lesson in trying to infer a writer's goal. I actually don't know what I had in mind here! Probably the description in the readme - 4d12, save for half - is best, and I'll probably standardise to that when I do a v34 release (not any time soon) but I can see the case for going for the consistent '4d10, no save' reading.
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,268
    Added a Fix for the prebuff version of Entropy Shield.
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,268
    Added a fix for some issues I found with the demon binding skill added by SCS.
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