[SPOILERS] Co8 v7 Beta Testing Thread [SPOILERS]

P.S. another reminder for a testing tool: the autokill script.


Purpose:
To facilitate rapid testing of ToEE with more realistic parties. (e.g. for balance testing, etc.)

E.g. The following will simulate / initiate autoplay of WB + Moathouse + Emridy Meadows + Assassin + Nulb + Hickory Branch:

Code:

from t import *
quickstart(3) 

Effects:

• Auto-equips party with some basic gear according to each PC's class and what is available from the shopmap.
• Simulates doing WB by spawning and insta-killing all the critters from there.
• Whenever you'll set foot in a map, it will:
  • Autokill all the baddies
  • Loot most of their items
  • Convert their jewelry and common items to gold (according to your party's highest appraise skill)
  • Give (and in some cases complete) common quests, e.g. the Hommlet Inn quest, and set the relevant flags.

Notes:

• It is best to gradually progress the quickstart(#) number, because of some dependencies (e.g. the Moathouse Respawn).
• Some places (like the Moathouse lower dungeon, and Drow Caves) require entering and exiting twice, to make sure you don't lose on XP in case your party is small.
• The Big 3 Ambush is only autokilled if you exit from the cave exit.
• As you may have guessed, a good-oriented playthrough is assumed.
• Leveling up and distributing the loot within the party still has to be done manually.
• Autoloot:
  • Items that are autoconverted to gold will appear to be still worn by critters (they are simply flagged NO_LOOT, while you are awarded GP according to their worth and multiplicity).
  • It's not perfect yet, some items will still remain on the corpse. But at least gems, jewelry and money are looted, which are primary sources of income in the game.
• The quickstart() script accepts a numerical argument from 0-6 that roughly corresponds to what your party would have accomplished at the end of the matching story_state:
  • 0 - gearup + minor Hommlet business
  • 1 - WB auto completed
  • 2 - Moathouse + Emridy
  • 3 - Nulb + HB
  • 4 - Temple, AoH*, Revenge Encounter, MR
  • 5 - Greater Temple, some of Verbobonc (includes the Drow Caves, and the Fugitives)
  • 6 - Fire Node
  • The effects are cumulative, e.g. quickstart(6) will do everything up to 6.
• The default usage also gives you cheat items (Wand of Fireball / Holy Smite / Flame Strike, and Wand of Knock ). If you wish to disable this, type:
  
  Code:

  quickstart(#, 0, 1)

  Where # is the story state #, as before. This will disable the cheat items.

*AoH - currently just gives you the book and sets some flags - you'll have to do the actual fighting.

 

@ SirChet
Well spoken sir. i will work on my brevity

 

@ Sitra Achara
this info you provided sounds FASCINATING!! thanks for sharing. How is this activated?
Is it a script activated by the console, or an application that has to be added to the installation folder...

In either case, very cool.

I have often wondered if something like that could be implemented in the starting Shop Map.
For those that have played the game NUMEROUS times, maybe they would like to jump to a point in the game, IE get to the "good parts" - or at least the NEW parts.

If there was a way to "auto-level" appropriately to newly provided NC, perhaps through a dialog option with a NPC in the hotel/shopmap, i'd be behind that, definitely!!! NWN2 mods often added these sorts of things for that kind of auto-leveling and jumping to points in the story.

something like: "i see you have been here before, where is your party headed?" and you select a destination and the game compensates by providing a suitable level and equipment for that destination and story state.

Sorry Gaear if this is going off topic!

 

Yes, it's activated by the console, with the code I described in the above post.
No need to add new files, it's already there in t.py, quickstart_module.py and py00439script_daemon.py.

 

[If I type] from t import * quickstart(6)

[Then] I would be awarded the xp and gold as though I just finished everything listed up to and including the Fire Node and be given a Wand of Fireball / Holy Smite / Flame Strike, and Wand of Knock, correct?

 

No, not quite.

EVERY TIME YOU ENTER A MAP:
1. Hostile critters will be automatically killed, and you will be rewarded the XP.
2. They will be looted. Likewise for some of the chests.
3. Plain items (such as boots, non-magical items, gems, jewelry,etc.) will be automatically converted to gold.
4. In some cases, quests will be given / solved, and some flags will be set, to simulate you completing the quests.

In addition, the game.story_state will match the input # in quickstart(#).

Also, like I said, it is best to gradually progress the # in quickstart, e.g. to prevent the Moathouse Respawn from appearing right after you finish the Moathouse, thus causing it to be autokilled when you are too low level to handle it (hence causing you to gain more XP than you should).

One other thing - an exception to the above is WB; instead of actually having to go there, it just invisibly spawns monsters equivalent to what's in WB, and automatically kills and loots them, giving you the equivalent XP and (roughly) gold.

 

Got it, it's best to use this tool incrementally per area as I enter each area.

My interest is peeked due to the time saved in some of the testing scenarios, say with party changes and such.

 

Are most new CR changes applied to Mid-to-End of Game NC, or were they applied across the board?? so that will be a main thrust of the testing, to see if balance has been severely affected...

Early game is usually tough, (as much as i enjoy WB i cannot usually complete it until i have a level 2 party, as i insist on doing it in one go w/o resting or retreating once there - ideal for me is to get a level up to level 2 at the end of the Goblin ambush encampment - the party then WANTS to rest, but they push on!!! wounded and tired but a bit wiser) and the overall challenge levels out until the party reaches the earlier vanilla level 10 cap, and once past it, the party becomes a dominant force other than specific very tough battles. I have always liked this progression ... as i favor having a party that can survive multiple combats before resting, rather than having to retreat more than to just sell off loot, etc. I.E. lol i LIKE being a dominant force 8 man army My usual challenge is not how hard a particular combat is, but how far can i progress w/o resting. I don't usually pre-buff either, except for the HARDEST combats. One that comes to mind is the Nulb ambush in the party's house, one of my favorite combats for the tactical challenges presented in such tight corners!

it will be interesting to wade through the challenges of the game with a smaller, tighter force.

 

Gaear,

I think that would be amazing. However, it is not necessary for right now. Maybe an option for 7.1. I think we should beta test this new content incrementally and not all at once. We will miss too much if we have too much to test.

Question though. In our private PM's we have had the morale/philosophical discussion of 'changing Hommlet'. Generally, my ideas to change Hommlet (warlord and kill all Hommlet NPCs ala WotGS) have been met with concern (rightly so) since it changes vanilla. It seems like your new idea would be a major change in Hommlet.

If your long version were to occur, I can see how it might play in with other mod ideas I have sent you via PM. Do you remember my idea for an evil mercenary group trying to set up power in the region and you can begin joining them at level 1 in Hommlet? The idea was to give more of an evil plot line to the game, and this could potentially tie in nicely. Again, I wont have time to code it, and I am not asking you to either. However, if that idea was met with concern, what is philosophically different with your idea?

Again, I think it is an amazing idea. I am just trying to gain new understanding for this 'changing Hommlet' perspective.

 

If you want to do the long version, I would love it. Just let me know what to do.