Unintended (and unreliable) Great Cleave (3.5 feat)

kjeron

1. Drop the attached 2 files in the override folder.
2. Start new game (BGEE) with premade Adelia (mage).
3. Make sure Party AI and advanced AI "Attack in Melee" are turned on, turn off all Auto-pause options.
4. Move view quarter-screen to the right, then console:

5. for i=1,20,1 do C:CreateCreature("KOBCOMM"); end
   

6. (Moving the view is only so they spawn out of melee range)
7. Adelia's AI will begin attacking the kobolds.
8. (Spawn more kobolds if their numbers get low - this next part can take several rounds before it starts occurring)
9. Eventually, you should see her go wild, chaining attack after attack. Sometimes it's just one extra, sometimes it's several. If it's not obvious enough, you can turn on Auto-Pause:"End of Round", and you will see that these attacks are all within the same "round". I've seen up to 8 attacks before the autopause triggers - though I think it might be that the auto-pause won't trigger until the chained attacks end.
10. Even with Cosmetic attacks disabled, she will still occasionally make them, but always before her real attack.
11. Ctrl+Y on any Watchers that decide to interfere.

I don't know exactly what is happening here, but as far as I can tell it involves op138 (Set Animation Sequence) and the AttackOneRound() action finding a new target when the current one dies. Some of the other Attack actions may work, but I could not get GroupAttack() to trigger it. Slowing your character may also increase the chance, but I don't think it's worth it even if it does. Works with Melee and Ranged attacks.

The two files are modified as such:
STAF01.ITM:

• 30 range: not waste time moving
• +20 damage & +30 to hit: need to hit & kill the targets
• 0 speed: I've had best results with 0 speed, but it's still too unreliable to know if it actually affects the chance.
• Hit effect: op138 (Set Animation Sequence), Self, Sequence: "2|CAST".

COMPB05.ITM:

• (This is the Kobold Commander's "KOBCOMM" undroppable shortbow)
• op1: APR set to 0 (This is only so they don't kill you while testing)

suy

Amazing finding, @kjeron! I'm surprised there is so few feedback/reactions to the post.

The "cleave" kinda working when killing an opponent is something that it's been often discussed and sort of known among veterans, but I've never been able to reproduce it myself. I know from CamDawg that ranged weapons have 0 speed factor (though I don't remember the reason), and your tweak to the staff probably helps, because always that I've heard about this, it seems to happen more with ranged weapons (which probably help in not having to move to retarget an enemy as well).

The point you mention in 10 is something that has annoyed me to no avail, as quite often in regular combat (not a special setup like here) I've seen creatures perform a swing animation and not perform an attack roll. The worst part is that this animation breaks stealth, so I've seen many backstabs ruined. This is very frustrating, that sometimes the number of attacks per round is not consistent. BTW, your findings on the other post about the attacks distribution is also incredible. Things like this blow my mind. I sometimes try to reverse engineer the engine, but I lack the patience and skill, so I really appreciate what you did here.

Thank you!