[SOLVED] having more than 5 PCs

after fooling around a bit I found a solution which lets you have more than 5 PCs. it's not perfect but should make party building more enjoyable.

Upsides
- you can play with more than 5 PCs
- levelup works
- killing PCs works
- changing map works

Downsides
- using party pool then -> CRASH
- inviting more NPCs (to total of 8 characters) -> CRASH
- when creating party or viewing party pool on the normal 5 PCs will be displayed
- not really tested

How to apply
- get yourself patch#2
- get yourself a hex editor
- make a backup of temple.dll
- change temple.dll offset $0002BBEF from 0x05 to say 0x08 (allowing 8 PCs)
the location looks like "0083C40483F805" some bytes before
- save modified file
- enjoy

How to use
- apply the fix
- load up game/start new game
- in the party pool (when clicking on the book in the pubs i.e.) add more PC characters to the party
- if away from the next town do this: open console (SHIFT+~), type "game.party_pool()"

A note on the fire nodes
I assume that the big slowdowns in the fire-node or whenever candles are lit (like the shrine northwest of jaroos tree) have their prob in the particle system/lighting.
if someone has time to burn you can try changing the values in "data/rules/partsys0.tab" for entries like "ef-fire-island-500" and see what happens

rÿche on

 

spOOL, there are 2 instances of "0083C40483F805" in temple.dll

Changing the 2nd offset at "002BCAF" from 05 to 08 seems to have stopped any CTD's due to using the party pool or adding NPC's up to the party limit of 8 (at least for me).

Still can't start a party with more than 5 PC's and when you add the remaining 3 PC's (at the inns) they still don't appear until you get back into the game.

Other than that I bow down to your knowledge, o' mighty one. Keep up the good work, I'm sure there are many people on the forums who have been waiting for this!!

 

I'd say that this is pure coincidence given the random number of bytes I wrote down to make sure everyone finds the right spot.

Didn't help here. As long as the total party size does not exceed 8 everything should work pretty well. You only need to be careful when inviting NPCs because their dialogs are scripted to test the function "game.followers_at_max()" which does not take this fix into account.

Concerning those tutorial messages somebody (zhuge?) wanted to add in some other thread: I think there's two conditions to be met.
- First you need the game to be set in tutorial mode. This can be achieved through "game.tutorial_toggle()" (see scr/py00240+*.py) and then invoking the method "game.tutorial_show_topic(<some TAG_ id>)"
- Second you need the TAG_ id linked in the "mes/help.tab"
BTW there are lots of other functions defined for the game object. These can be looked up by the __builtin__ Python method dir(<object>) -> so "dir(game)" will give you a list of methods/variables in "game". Beware though because the printing routine messes up inside the console window.

It works here. Just keep adding your PCs. You won't see their faces at the bottom of the screen though. I don't think that I can come with a fix that alleviates this problem which possibly is the cause for party_pool crashes too.

O thank you Shiftyjim. I think it was pretty easy though given you utilize the right tools of trade (a hushingdisassembler i.e.).

rÿche on

 

big thank you.

I've taken a party of 8 player characters through the entire game without a hitch. I just played around potential NPC's and had a great time. This definately adds a whole new level of 'fun' to the game. So-- thanks for the fix man.

I, for one, really appreciate your work.

 

@spOOL:
Thanks for your answer in the other thread. Really great to see progress made in making changes to the dll. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
That really opens up lots of possibilities.
I've downloaded the disassembler but I've yet to take a look at it due to lack of time. I really would like to see as many modders as possible to tinker with the dll.

One of the Power Attack bugs is that it allows characters with Str12 to get the feat (should be minimum Str13). Since 12 in hex is C, does that mean we should start looking for a C which is associated with Power Attack code (not sure how to get the string reference for it) and change it to D.

Another Power Attack bug is that it gives 1-handed weapons a +2 damage bonus for every BAB (should be +1 damage bonus for every BAB). Any ideas if we can track this one down as well? If I'm not mistaken this appeared to be properly implemented before the 1st official patch. So is it possible to compare the original exe with the current dll to see which things have been changed?

Wishing you all the best in bug eradication.

 

If you can find the right offset this wouldn't be a problem. But since all text resources are i18nalized it will be difficult to find the place. The best hook still are strings that are in correlation with any of the python scripting functions (*.py files and ingame console).
On a shallow attempt I didn't find the correct location.

Another difficult problem. Since I cannot tell how damage is effectively calculated in ToEE and the given amount of modifiers possible for such calculation I think it nearly impossible.
Comparing with any previous patch should be futile too because A*A*Is use of Sec*ROM f***s up the whole exe. If you take a noCD exe which has been kindly unwrapped of the Sec*ROM bull**** you'd still have low chances because the reconstruction may not completely undo what A*A*I _<insert term here>_ed.
Even if you knew where to look chances are that the modifications done in patch#2 scrambled the bits.

I do not want to discourage you but I for myself think that Troika should as an act of atonement support Co8 and all people involved.

rÿche on

 

Returning to the original theme of the thread, as well as removing the limit on PCs, temple.dll can be tweaked to remove the three NPC and five summoned creature limits. Not as useful I know - and there are some probs - but fun to try anyaway.

Thanks to spOOL I figured there must also be a '3' and '5' near to the location for upping the PC limit. Sure enough at offset 0002:BC4F (location looks similar to before but ends in a 3 - 0083C40483F803) is the NPC limit value.
Change the last 3 to anything up to 8 and it becomes the new NPC limit. Although as before, the total no. of PCs & NPCs can't exceed 8.

For summoned creatures the location looks exactly the same as for the PC limit ie. 0083C40483F805 at offset 0002:BCAF. Change the number - I tried 9 and had 9 charmed bugbears, although you can probably have even more as there does not appear to be same restrictions as with PCs and NPCs.

Problems - Yes for starters the function "game.followers_at_max()" still kicks in when trying to recruit 4 or more NPCs so you either need to modify the dlg file to remove the condition first, or else use Suggestion/Dominate Person spells to get them to join.

It also appears that animal companions need to be summoned when still below the five limit otherwise the option is not available from the radial menu.

I haven't fully tested this beyond actually ensuring that the NPCs and summoned creatures can be added to the new values. As always there may be other gameplay issues.

 

Hah!

Finally did my first mod!

Got a hex editor and through trial and error got the right string and fixed it. COOL. Thanks spOOL for the fix. Definitely changes the dynamics of the game.

 

Ach! I jes don' get it!

I changed the 5 to an 8 an I get 3 barflies drinking in their skivvies in the inn all day. This ol' dwarf could use a little guidance from one of you brainy-type mages out there!

 

Works for me. I'm trying now with the first one set to 7, the second to 1, in the hopes that it will let me have 7 PCs and 1 NPC. (Because so many quests require a single NPC for a while). I wish you could have more, though!

 

Oops, followup: Reentering party pool when I have more than 5 PCs does indeed cause tragic crashes. Which leaves me wondering: Anyone got a way to change voices? I chose poorly, and I hate one of my characters now.

 

This might be a nice thing to include in the next patch version so people don't have to rehack their dll's everytime they patch the game.

(I'd also like to see the hoodless cloak Protos hack (circlets funtion like helmets) in the next patch as well, but it's only cosmetic so it's much less important. Plus it's a matter of personal preference.)

 

I used this one http://www.sweetscape.com/010editor/

When you search for 0083C40483F805 make sure you change the Type to Hex Bytes or it will not find it.

It should find 2 instances, I editied the first one and it worked fine. I editied the second one and the game crashed. Remember to backup your dll....

You will want to edit in the left window under Signed Byte, just change the 5 to a 8 then save.