Livonya's Beta 1.0 Mod.zip

I've played through the beta to the air temple gnolls. Fun! A few notes along the way--

1) that revenge subplot is nasty! It took a long time loading and saving for my party to win.

2) The rest of the battles I'm finding easier going, even though the ai is obviously souped-up. That's probably because my second time through I have a better sense of how to play the party as a group. I hope Livonya makes available the harder version she mentioned earlier.

3) My wizard can't add any effects to weapons when he crafts them, only +1 - +3. It wasn't this way before I added on the mod. Anyone else have this problem?

4) I agree with those who said Lareth is too easy. He should have some sort of assistance--if I were dming the thing, I'd have a quasit, or, in the spirit of keeping it really hard, maybe even a gargoyle, as a divinely-granted bodyguard. Though that might be too much for lower levels. But you get the idea.

5) Last night I saved the game in the middle of a battle with some air temple gnolls. Now I reload it, and one of the gnolls is 'up', with no action time left on the green/yellow/red bar, but it doesn't go to the next one. Is there a way, through the console, to get out of this, or is the game kaput (I got forgetful and stopped redunantly saving games, so this is pretty much it).

6) Most important, just wanted to say that all the work on this game is wonderful, and thank you.

 

That is just something that happens. Anytime you save during combat and try to re-leload you run the risk of something really weird happening. This was true before my mod as well.

You simply do not want to save during combat unless you have other saves to go back to in case of disaster...

I know that isn't much help.

Sorry.

- Livonya

 

Oh, that's ok. I figured that was the case, but thought I'd ask anyway.

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

Yes, I will get that Difficulty mod done soon... just busy finishing 1.5 of my normal mod!

Okay, I will look into this. Anyone else noticed this problem?

I agree. I need to work on this. I just haven't figured out the best solution. Sooner or later I will do something to remedy this situation.

- Livonya

 

My only crafter right now is my cleric, but he's got the full array of enhancements available, though sometimes I do have to exit out of the craft screen and reenter it for all of them to show up. But the same thing happened before the mod.

I take it there was no way to script him to join the battle with his guards?

 

That might be doable, the problem being that a conversation is triggered when Lareth is low on HP, a conversation that is essential to the plot. The easiest way to handle that is to have the party fight him alone. If Lareth joins his guards in battle and is critically wounded, it might not be possible to trigger the conversation while the rest of his men are still locked in combat with the player's party.

 

Seems to work fine now Livonya. Muchos gracias.

 

I know how to do the scripting. The problem I am having is deciding what I want to happen.

Here are the options I am considering at the moment.

1) Have Lareth join the battle. When he is low on hit points the battle stops and he can join your party... at that point the battle ends and the brigands in the room no longer want to fight you. This means that you will lose out on the treasure/exp for this battle.

Of course you could then attack them and start the battle new, but does it make sense that Lareth would now help you to kill his own men? Or should he leave you to join his men... meaning that you can no longer get him in your party?

Or you might decline to allow him in the party and then the battle will start again.

2) Have Lareth join the battle. When he is low on hit points he goes and hides in his room. Once the main battle is over you go deal with him.

The problem is that you can still go in his room and kill him rather than finishing the battle... kind of weird, but could be scripted.

3) Keep Lareth out of the battle. And instead beef up the fight in his room with some personal guards.

I am leaning towards option 3, but option 1 might be more fun. Option 2 and 3 would keep the story line as close to the original as possible.

Option 1 is the hardest to code, though I know I can do it. And it does give the most re-play value as the choices have more impact on the battle.

- Livonya

 

Well, I've killed him numerous times without him being able to say anything (the fact that he just stands there until you attack him makes it really easy to make sure your rogue can start the fight off in flanking position), so I don't know how essential this really is. It does reduce your options, though.

I'm liking this option. Maybe give him a potion of invisibility and/or cast Sanctuary on himself so he can heal up in relative safety while the party finishes off his guards.

 

Giving reason to Gaear's idea (2 + 3), after retreating into his room, Lareth could be in the process of (re-)buffing, part of which process is summoning a creature or two, the possibility of such being bestowed on him by Lolth in times of need (shadow of what happens with Hedrake, later on).

Just one storytelling possibility, of many.

 

There are nine swords...

...all my info comes straight from the Greyhawk archives (the 1st Edition Unearthed Arcana)...in brilliant black & white. Fragarach (The Answerer) is the model for the others that were made, one for each alignment. It is much more powerful than those which followed. If you want the book info on these weapons, I stand ready to oblige.

Keolander is correct about the alignment of Fragarach; the misprint is in the original T1-4 Supermodule, the Temple of Elemental Evil on page 126. Troika, working from this, obviously perpetuated the folly.

And I don't really want to hear any crud from any body whining about how the rules are 3.5 nowadays...This computer game is based on the original T1-4 Supermodule adapted for use with the new rules...not that anyone here is (or would be) whining.

Anybody who wants to use Excalibur should open the console and type "give 4025" to get what is arguably one of the best swords in the game. It works just fine, and if you haven't patched at all, you can avoid the bugs associated with unlimited a.o.o's and certain aforementioned blades.

Gaear's idea about Lareth (with additions) sounds agreeable to me as well. A couple or 3 black widow spiders sent by her ladyship (...or are they his pets?) make perfect sense to me; web the place up so that he can move about freely (free action ring) and dual-wield-bust-heads with his staff and mace, like he was meant to do!

 

well im not sure what the princes alignment was originally, in this game its CG, but Fragarach has always been listed as CG and on page 127 of t 1-4 it lists the swords of answering and there are only 7 there. thats where i get my info from. i have unearthed arcanna, i have all the books, but most are currently boxed up.

both the swords in this game seem to ahve for some reason the excate abilities. the only difference being that anyone can pick up scather here. they didnt give it any alignment at all. fragarach they made holy so that any evil PC would be killed picking it up. i played around with them and i can make the swords and make some good and evil but it doesnt seem to make a difference on lawful or chaotic. i made those and the others could still use them with np. the big problem with making the others is finding out where they are geting the bounus from cause its just called fraganach so any i make will have bounuses against evil only. if i can make new bounuses for each weapon then they could all work right

ive never been able to use the give command i get a single arrow that says do not use.

i like the idea of lareth having a couple of nasty spiders in there waiting for you. if we wanted to get real nasty it could be a drider but thats probally going to far.

 

"Prince Thrommel...

...Grand Marshall of Furyondy, Provost of Veluna, a Paladin Lord."

I'd say this makes him Lawful Good, and something like ninth level (or tenth level tops). Fragarach is without a doubt a unique sword, and definetly Lawful Good as well. Otherwise, our hero could not wield it; and as for anything being both Holy and Chaotic, well, it simply should not exist.

 

well in ToEE they make things with either holy or unholy, lawful or chaotic to help determine alignment so chaotic and holy is CG. anything holy hurts evil that pick it up and vise versa for unholy but for some reason the lawful and chaotic dont seem to have any affect, at least they dont cause damage to oppisite alignments. as to why they put in a CG sword that belonged to a paladin i have no idea, or why he wasnt in the original module. maybe he was from the very begining rules where paladins could be any alignment got me. i can fix the alignment in this game though and make it LG.