the first and second conditions were to not have any of them in your party (that would include hiring them), and not killing any of them... you said zert died, therefore you broke the second rule. if you REALLY want to see the encounter just run through it without letting any of the 3 die ie dont hire them or attack them until the encounter
...unless you're willing to fiddle with the console a little. If so - bring up the console (by pressing shift+ ~) Then type: game.global_flags[70] = 0 This will reset the flag that tells the game that you've talked with Otis, and enable this encounter (provided that the other conditions are met as well).
Sorry to reanimate this thread, but I've also noticed that if you manage to kill Lareth before he can interrupt combat all "Please don't kill me, I will give you shiny things", the encounter doesn't happen. (It also doesn't spawn the spiders on the way out of the moathouse. Which I suppose makes sense.) At least I assume that's why it didn't happen for me this time.(I got it with an LG party on an earlier playthrough just fine, but not with this CG party. I'm gonna redo the Moathouse and see if that changes anything. (And if my bard can get through it without picking up Filth Fever this time, so much the better!)
My last encounter with Lareth was like this -- he died before his first initiative round. I don't know about a spider ambush, but I got the Big 3 after reloading and *not* reading Lareth's Diary. Reading the Diary will mark Nulb on your map (if it wasn't already), and it will set the story_state variable to 3. One (or both) of these conditions precludes the Big 3 ambush from occurring in CMF 5.05. I believe Gaear's changes will fix this "bug." --thearioch
Arioch is probably correct. Also, it's funny how people who have not looked under the game's hood make all sorts of correlations and assumptions. I guess that's how superstitions are born.
@Sitra I tightened up my language. I know from reading the dlg/py files that reading the Diary marks Nulb and sets the Story State. I haven't learned how to read map/mob files yet, so I'm not sure *exactly* which conditions reading the Diary sets that precludes the Big 3 ambush, but I did enough testing to be certain that doing so does. --thearioch
If you take a look inside py00334generic_spawner, you can see the ambush script itself. And as you said, Gaear's new version of the script changes the condition so that reading the diary doesn't fubar the ambush.
I'm all confused now. Killed Lareth far too easily (wouldn't have been so lame had he come out to help his minions), can't open the diary, did talk to Otis, might have hired Zert for a minute (testing for fallen paladin - but I believe I reloaded after test). I know Otis was changed and I thought just don't have (!=never have had) Zert & Co with you is ok. And, most importantly, I dowloaded the updates in the CMF thread. I also downloaded the Traders 0.75mod and installed it after all others. Does it have something to do with leaving the interior of the moathouse to go to the spider tower to rest before killing Lareth? Are there some console commands I can use or do I have to choose between moving onward and restarting?