Possible solution to Lightning Trap problem with Hickory Farm key

Being stuck at level 4 of the temple with no way of disarming the lightning trap really sucks, especially because I tackled Hickory so early. Today I read a post dated from last year(found here) that has led me to believe that the key from Hickory is bugged as a skeleton key that conflicts with the lightning trap. I have no modding ability whatsoever, so after a bit of thinking I came up with an idea that I want to throw out to the community here. One idea is to link the chest of the Fiendish Minotaur in Hickory with an existing key found in the game (the bandit leader in the tower, for instance). Another would be to either remove the key from the minotaur or simply have no lock on the chest at all. I don't think it's a rule, even in the Greyhawk world, that every chest with items in it must be locked. But I digress....

Another suggestion I have in mind might be harder or easier, I don't know how difficult it would be to implement (or if it's even possible). If we wanted to keep the key and the lightning trap, then is there a way to script an NPC to where he can remove the key from your log? I'm curious if a key entry can be deleted at all from an existing game, because if that were the case then maybe we could simply add a dialogue option with Mona the fortune teller. After all, she points out Hickory to you, perhaps if you talked to her again after visitng she could take away the key with the comment "this object is much to powerful for you to keep..." It would explain the accidental Skeleton Key attribute.

Feel free to let me know the feasibility of any of these suggestions. I am also willing to playtest the key removing possibility to see if it gets the lightning trap to function normally once again :cool2: Thanks in advance!

-Iron Liche (guess the source of my name and win a prize!) :doublethu

 

In addition, I just wanted to point out that I'm in favor of any solution that would keep me from reverting to an earlier savegame :yeaaa: I tackled Hickory before ever going to the temple, so I'd have a lot of ground to recover if you guys are gonna tell me what I suspect you'll tell me mg: Now if there's a command I can use ingame or some way for me to remove the key entry without reverting to an earlier save or wait for a new release here, I'm all for that! Anyways, thanks again in advance for any input you guys give me on these two posts.

-Iron Liche

EDIT: I read the thread on console commands and saw that reputations can be added and removed. If this is the case, might there be a console command to add and remove keys? I'll try testing that out tonight and see what I find. Also, my apologies to Cerulean the Blue for any inconvenience from originally PMing my problem to him before publicly posting first. I know better for next time

EDIT part deux: I found another post here regarding the inability to use lightning trap control box (it merely opens as a regular chest with no dialogue prompt), and there I found the teleport command that'll let me continue with my game *phew*, but I'd still love to test whether it's the hickory key (marked "reserved" in my Key Log, probably a bad sign) that causes this discrepency to occur. Finding a way to remove the key from my log midgame would be the ideal condition of testing this theory.

 

Don't thank me, Ted, thank the original poster of this connection that I linked to in my own post elvicthr I think I was just in a better position to explain the connection because someone had screenshots that showed what I had been suspicious of for a while. Thanks for so promptly testing and responding to my dilemma, you guys make me so proud to be a ToEE fan!

I think it's interesting that reputations and quests can be added and removed via console, I would suspect a command to be available for keys as well. Even without that temporary solution, the teleport command for temple level 4 listed in the console sticky was of immeasurable help for me to continue my game. Unfortunately, Stoneskin is not enough to keep my warrior from dying at the hands of Iuz, and I can't do enough damage to him before St. Cuthbert shows up by using my cheese tactic (Otiluke's Resilient Sphere on nearest party member with Fragarach gives me free AOO damage on Iuz if he attacks the guy, and it leaves my Scather-using member open to dish out his own damage :chairshot ) I have no idea how people have dealt 720 damage in 2-3 rounds, it astounds me. I guess I'll try for killing the Baalor instead :zap: Thanks again for everything!

-Iron Liche

 

Yes, both keys from Hickory Branch (the minotaur's and the orc commander's) make it impossible to interact correctly with the lightning trap or the chest that Brother Smith wants you to open after you clear the moathouse.

The easiest fix IMO is to delete the two keys -- after all, the four locked chests in the moathouse don't have keys, either. To do that properly, you have to delete not the keys themselves but more importantly the references to the keys from the orc commander and minotaur MOBs. I have attached alternate versions of their MOBs which do exactly that -- delete all reference to the key from their inventories. To change the keys into normal, non-skeleton keys requires changing four different MOBs: the keys themselves, and the chests they open. I could certainly have done that instead, but for simplicity I decided just to avoid the keys entirely.

To employ these fixes, just drop the attached MOBs into the right folders: G_A4E7... goes in modules\...\maps\Hickory Branch, and G_029D... goes in ..\Hickory Branch Crypt.

 

Having just run into the lightning trap issue last night finding this fix seemed a godsend but after copying the files per the instructions I'm still having the same problem. Is there a way to fix this after having already gotten the keys?