[SPOILERS] Co8 v7 Beta Testing Thread [SPOILERS]

Discussion in 'General Modification' started by Gaear, Sep 13, 2011.

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  1. Sitra Achara

    Sitra Achara Senior Member

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    Yes, in particular, Sargen's encounter takes place after 3 weeks, and the others 10 days or 14 days, so they definitely should happen first.
    But as I said, you must visit the place where they ran off, for the timed event to trigger. Has that been fulfilled? (though I suppose that alone justifies the new scripting I've added, because it's independent of that)

    Strange. What happens if you take the encounter? Does it happen more than once? If it happens again you should try to enter the encounter adn save the game, because maybe it's a particular proto with a bad portrait attached.
     
    Sitra Achara, Oct 30, 2011
    #151
  2. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    @Sitra, can you explain to me in laymen's terms the advantages of the 'game time method' thing? I've actaully found the original method quite reliable as long as you set the RE's from frequently visited maps (Verbo and Hommlet exterior, etc.) and have been happily doing it that way with all the new NC timed events (of which there are many, especially in v7). I'm also not entirely convinced that the other method is trouble-free, basically just based on the simpler is better approach.

    If what you're asking is will the scheduled events occur in the order in which you receive them, the answer is actually not necessarily, because the timing varies. e.g., you may get Sargen's pledge first, then Thrommels, then Thrommle's reward, then Sargen's, because it takes Sargen's guy longer to find you. You can schedule a timed event anywhere from a second later to infinity, basically.

    @sirchet, yes, it is a conspiracy. I snuck into your computer late one night and changed the files, then changed them back! ;)
     
    Gaear, Oct 30, 2011
    #152
  3. Sitra Achara

    Sitra Achara Senior Member

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    I'm assuming that by 'game time method' you mean the scheduling system inside script_daemon that I'm using.

    The idea is simple: you record the game time at time T into a variable.
    To see whether a scheduled event should fire, you check if the current time is >= T + X seconds. This check is inserted into san_new_map, so it checks it every time you change maps.

    Advantages, relative to game.timevent_add(), are:
    1. The system works from any map. In contrast to game.timevent_add(), which will only fire from the map where the script command was originally activated.
    2. The game can't "forget" the timed event, which I am led to believe is the case with the game.timevent_add() method, over long stretches of normal play.

    I don't doubt that it works reliably in "test-style" playthroughs, e.g. if you immediately pass 2-3 weeks after setting the timed event. My concern is that it doesn't work reliably for real playthroughs, where long periods of time go by (by this I mean actual real-life play time). Perhaps the game "forgets" timed events for some reason. The evidence is that plenty of people have reported reward encounters failing to happen over the years. Unfortunately, it's very hard to unequivocally prove.

    Well, you don't have to use it exclusively, it can be used as a backup / redundancy.
     
    Sitra Achara, Oct 30, 2011
    #153
  4. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    PHASE 2 INSTRUCTIONS

    Alright, I'm going to post some instructions for beginning phase 2 of the testing here. I know you're not all ready but I'd rather let those of you who are start when you're able.

    Phase 2 is basically the phase where we see how hard much of the new stuff is and whether it's problematic, i.e. the fun phase. Some things you will all do the same, others you will do differently. You'll each be told exactly what to do for the different parts. Look for your name and your color code: SIRCHET, J'ALLAN, EMO.

    STEP 1: INTRO

    ALL: Using your level 10 save, go to Verbobonc and make all the regular contacts: Captain Abiram (City Hall), Captain Absalom (Constabulary), Captain Achan (Jail), Wilfrick (City Hall), Prince Zook (Gnome Quarter), Canon Ramses (Church of Pelor), the priest of Hextor (ruined church basement), Darlia (Maroon Moon), Lerrick (City Hall). See Maurice the banker and buy the castle, terms or not - doesn't matter. Make contact with any minor NPCs you care to (merchants, etc.).

    ALL: Accept the Frozen Assets quest from Wilfrick, the Under Attack From Underground quest from Prince Zook, the Wanted: Guntur Gladstone, Wanted: Kendrew Commonworth, and Wanted: Quintus Corpus quests from Captain Achan, the Contract On Canon Thaddeus quest from the Hextor priest, the Monster Mash quest from Canon Ramses, and the Robbery at the Hostel quest from Darlia.

    DO NOT DO ANY OF THESE QUESTS YET.

    STEP 2: CASTLE

    ALL: Run around in the castle and enjoy the view, and see if any doors fail or anything like that. Try to sleep there. Talk to the ghosts. Make sure they appear properly at night. Report any failures or oddities. Set up the portals on the parapet level and try them out. Let me know what you think.
     
    Gaear, Oct 30, 2011
    #154
  5. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Gaear, Oct 30, 2011
    #155
  6. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    Man, just when the fun stuff starts I have to be on the road.
    I'll be back Friday night and should be able to test on Sat.

    I'm posting this from my darn iphone.

    When we gett'n TOEE "the app"? Heh heh
     
    sirchet, Oct 30, 2011
    #156
  7. Sitra Achara

    Sitra Achara Senior Member

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    Here's a couple of fixes.

    First - answering an exploit that has long plagued ToEE: Spiritual Weapon Abuse Prevention.
    Previously, the exploit (using SW to completely distract the AI) was combatted by giving the SW limited HP; but it could still soak up quite a bit of punishment, while per the rules it shouldn't be attacked at all.

    What it does:
    From inside san_start_combat, Spiritual_Weapon_Begone(attachee) searches for enemy spiritual weapons and moves them away for a split second - just long enough for the enemy NPC to pick a different target, even when the SW is closest to them.
    To be on the safe side, it checks whether the SWs are the closest to the AI, and thus the likely target for the AI.

    I've inserted it to most relevant san_start_combat scripts, should you find any glaring omissions let me know.

    Second - Summon Monster Initiative Issue
    When you summon a monster via the spell (Summon Monster / Nature's Ally), it should act on the same round; currently, it acts only on the following round. Applied a fix, that immediately sets the summon's initiative to just below the spell caster's, so it gets to act right afterwards.
     

    Attached Files:

    Sitra Achara, Oct 31, 2011
    #157
  8. J'allan UlDragos

    J'allan UlDragos Dragon Warrior

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    a little progress last night...

    Defeated the Witch and her minions, party advanced to LVL 7
    Defeated the Drow encounter in the Gnarled Woods (Witche's Note)
    Defeated Rannos Revenge scenario in Nulb, advanced to LVL 8

    was not able to progress this past weekend as my power was knocked out by a freak snowstorm that hit Pennsylvania early AM of Saturday, got my power back mid Sunday.

    Hope to be level 10 by this weekend, so let me know what you need me to do for Phase 2

    Awesome!!! Gaear has posted the PHASE 2 quests :)
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2011
    J'allan UlDragos, Nov 2, 2011
    #158
  9. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    PHASE 2 INSTRUCTIONS (continued)

    STEP 3: INITIAL QUESTS

    ALL: Complete the following quests:
    • Frozen Assets
    • Under Attack From Underground
    • Wanted: Guntur Gladstone
    • Wanted: Kendrew Commonworth
    • Wanted: Quintus Corpus

    SIRCHET:
    • Complete the Robbery at the Hostel quest.
    • Accept the Framework of a Murder quest from Darlia and complete it.
    • Accept the Removing Wilfrick quest from Darlia but do not complete it. Instead, go talk to various Verbobonc NPCs and find a way to turn in Darlia to the authorities. This will get the Scarlet Brotherhood pissed off and they will plot revenge on you.
    • Do not complete the Monster Mash quest.
    • Do not complete the Contract on Canon Thaddeus quest. Instead, go talk to various Verbobonc NPCs and find a way to turn in the Hextorites to the authorities. This will get the Hextorites pissed off and they will send the Gremlich after you.

    J'ALLAN:
    • Complete the Monster Mash quest. This will get the Hextorites pissed off and they will send the Gremlich after you.
    • Complete the Contract on Canon Thaddeus quest.
    • Do not complete the Robbery at the Hostel quest. Instead, go talk to various Verbobonc NPCs and find a way to turn in Darlia to the authorities. This will get the Scarlet Brotherhood pissed off and they will plot revenge on you.

    EMO:
    • Complete the Robbery at the Hostel quest.
    • Accept the Framework of a Murder quest from Darlia but do not complete it. Instead, go talk to various Verbobonc NPCs and find a way to turn in Darlia to the authorities. This will get the Scarlet Brotherhood pissed off and they will plot revenge on you.
    • Complete the Contract on Canon Thaddeus quest.
    • Complete the Monster Mash quest. This will get the Hextorites pissed off and they will send the Gremlich after you.

    ALL: During this step, feel free to work on the remaining Temple/Nodes stuff if you're feeling low in level or whatever.

    Let me know when you're finished with these tasks. When you have, the Gremlich should be after each of you and the Scarlet Brotherhood should be after you all as well. These are scheduled events that may vary in occurance. Don't wander the countryside trying to trigger them, just finish up what's on your plate and wait for Step 4.

    Special note: if you're not doing so already, keep multiple saves along the way.
     
    Gaear, Nov 3, 2011
    #159
  10. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    NOTES | This info is posted here for your convenience, in case you are wondering about any of it and don't want to ask and then wait around for me to answer.

    THE SCARLET BROTHERHOOD

    As you can see above, there are now three basic opportunities to betray them: after accepting the Robbery at the Hostel quest, after accepting the Framework of a Murder quest, and after accepting the Removing Wilfrick quest. Each variation carries different consequences for Darlia, and consequently, different levels of retaliation on you. In the case of Removing Wilfrick, the Verbo authorities take that very seriously. You are still at liberty to accept the Catching the Cousin quest from Wilfrick at that point, but if you don't, the powers that be will handle it themselves.

    When Darlia has been incarcerated, you can and should go see him in jail.

    After narcing on the SB at the various levels, you will auto-complete a 'quest' indicating the same, and receive a commensurate reputation.

    THE HEXTORITES

    There are two ways to get them pissed at you: by doing the Monster Mash quest where you kill their buddies, and by narcing them out after accepting (but not doing) the Contract on Canon Thaddeus quest. Once they find out, they send the Gremlich after you and leave town. You will be informed of this by a Verbobonc guard at the Verbo Worldmap landing point (by the signpost and City Hall). You should then do what he suggests.

    If you follow through with your 'contact,' other interesting things will happen. You should test those out as well.

    After narcing on the Hextorites, you will auto-complete a 'quest' indicating the same, and receive a commensurate reputation.

    ~

    @sirchet, if you still have movies disabled on your system, you will miss out on a movie about the Gremlich. While these movies are meant to be entertaining, they also generally contain useful information, so missing them will put you at a significant disadvantage. If you can't get your system to play movies within ToEE, you should quit the game after a movie seems like it was meant to be played and play it independantly with the Bink player. All ToEE movies are located in data/movies.
     
    Gaear, Nov 4, 2011
    #160
  11. emo_ome

    emo_ome Butcher Of Hommlet

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    SA, I haven't seen any of the blue colored T random encounter anymore. They probably show because of my crazy persistent wanderings all over the world map.

    The road so far.

    -Steps 1 & 2 are done
    -Step 3 is done.
    -got Robin of Locksley encounter then killed him.
    -botched "Framework of a Murder" .
    -completed "Narcing on the SB"
    -got SB Narc reputation after talking to Darlia (no interaction w/ the SB revenge encounter yet).
    -saw four (or three?) R.E. related to the Gremlich.
    -completed "The Gremlich" (he totally spooked me after I saw him running towards my party, I screamed a little bit but not like his).:suprised:

    Castle of the Lords
    (The Goodies)
    -The Castle's interior is way better than the last one.
    -All doors & ladders works fine.
    -It's super handy when using the portals, it saves time.
    (The Baddies)
    -Attacking both Ghosts in the basement & upperhall won't initiate their dialog, they will only disappear and never come back, IIRC the third Ghost must be outside of the castle, but where is he? I can't find him.
    -I accidentally killed some of the portals while using fireball in searching for the third Ghost.
    -Sometimes I get stuck on the other side of the castle's terrace (where the catapults are) when exiting both the parapet and upper hall.

    Then, some notes and strange things.
    -I've completed Step 1 to 3 with two different starting levels (Level 10 & Level 13). Using lvl 10 took me some hard fights, reloads and consumes time, while lvl 13 is the opposite. Please advise on which side of level should I stick to for Step 4.

    -I didn't know that Meleny & some NPCs disbands when killing innocents such as the dwarves in nulb that needs to be robbed and Cannon Thaddeus, thought it was some kind of bug 'til I read the revision docs. Should I, let Meleny die there/disband her in hommlet before I do the quests/charm her? I've got saves with those three.

    -No logbook creatures killed-ego information for Robin of Locksley & Co.
    -No major rings for the clerics, guards and one of the mages of Cannon Thaddeus? (this is usually where I totally get wealthy).

    -Wilfrick is sooo workaholic, he stays 24/7 in his office. Well it contradicts Captain Abirams dialog "Remember, the Lord Viscount is not available here after hours".
    -Bringing the Wanted guys (Guntur, Quintus & Kendrack) all together in the WWI then kill them will make Guntur and Quintus body teleport to their spawning area.

    -Can I request to put an "exit" option in the starting dialog of the portals when choosing locations? it's for an option if we don't want to put a permanent location on the portal yet and also make the portals immune to attacks/spells just like the signpost and chests in the shop map.
    -Do levels still matter, do we need to enter them here?

    Now, my current party is inside the CotL viewing its beautiful interior while waiting for Step 4.

    * Uhmm sirchet, I don't know if this will help your cinematic problems. Well what happens to me is when I'm playing the game in fullscreen, the cinematics had no visuals (pure black) while its audio is playing in a jerkstop manner. I used the "window mode" and it solved my cinematic problem, I hope it works for you too. :)
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Nov 5, 2011
    emo_ome, Nov 5, 2011
    #161
  12. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    Being that I normally play a good aligned group, I'm not real sure on how to pick up these various quests. I'll search for a "how to".
    I usually do the things for the gnomes and hunt down the three bad guys though.
     
    sirchet, Nov 5, 2011
    #162
  13. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Use the signpost in Verbo to go to the Maroon Moon, arrange to see Darlia on the third floor, and convince him to let you work for him. :)

    @Emo, did you install the update from several days back? The Robin RE seems early. Your encounter should have happened around 17 days after you first talked to Wilfrick. Have you been in town that long?

    Was the Robin encounter easy, hard, or middling?

    Was the Gremlich easy, hard, or middling? Did you figure him out right away?

    Re: ghosts, I tried it and it worked fine. Are you attacking the actual ghosts, not just fighting the ones who interrupt you when you try to sleep? I'll check out the portal issue and getting stuck outside.

    Stick with 10 I guess.

    Kick her out, do the quest, and then get her back.

    Hm, that shouldn't be.

    Nope, that exploit was ended.

    Are you sure about that? He's scripted to be on during the day in his office and on during the night at home. If you just stand there and pass time he won't magically disappear though. There has to be a map change.

    We'll see.

    Yes, please list them.
     
    Gaear, Nov 5, 2011
    #163
  14. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    SA, do these files go in the DATA/scr folder?
    EDIT: Thanks SA, I must have glazed over that comment. I'll leave them out.

    I'm also not getting a good response from Darlia in the Maroon Moon. If I agree to come back the next day and pay 100 gold they send me up to the third floor where Darlia is with his buddy the adivsor to the Viscount.
    When I talk to him he just says his business is his own.
    My party is NG as is my mouth piece that talks to him.
    Does the Good part of NG make Darlia not want to deal with my party?
     
    Last edited: Nov 6, 2011
    sirchet, Nov 6, 2011
    #164
  15. Sitra Achara

    Sitra Achara Senior Member

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    Like I said in another post, it's mainly meant for Gaear, because I don't have the 7.0 files. If you don't know what you're doing, then don't :)
     
    Sitra Achara, Nov 6, 2011
    #165
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