Circle of Eight Modpack 5.9.x/5.9.xNC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

I have just about finished my 5.9.1 run and have a few more comments:

1) When you save a game, it also puts a little sentence in that you can see when you go to load your game. I have found that if I save a game when my party is inside the Castle of Lords in VB, it says 'This is the unknown area' for that save on the list. Please let me know if that is not clear.

2) In the air node, there are 2 windwalkers NW of the starting position and 8 vapor rats SE of the starting position. These two groups of creatures are not hostile. You can go right up to them. In fact, you can attack one rat and the others will not react. You can even kill one rat at a time until they are all dead. Can this be changed? They are too easy otherwise.

 

A minor exploit found but it's only for wizards who own the ring of resonance.

You can change your memorized spells with the ring. If you have 3 fireballs memorized, you can use the ring and memorize different spells. Instead of it just refreshing 3 fireballs, you can memorize any other 3rd level spells, use the ring and the new spells will be refreshed and useable. Works for all levels of spells.

Not sure if this was intended but it doesn't seem like it. Maybe.

 

Not sure if this has been noticed yet.

I forgot my Lareth's Staff of Striking was magical and by habit cast Magic Weapon on the thing. It gave me a +203 enhancement bonus to attack and damage for the duration of the spell.

 

I just want to clarify that it is the Light Blue Robes that weigh 3, whereas all of the other robes and wizard robes weigh 5.

I don't understand why the pregenerated half-orc PC named Giant is a "player-created" PC instead of being like all of the other "pregenerated" PCs. When you put a cross in the box to hide all of the pregenerated PCs during party creation, Giant is still displayed in the list of player-created PCs. Why is Giant a player-created PC instead of a pregenerated PC?

While playing 5.9.1 NC, I killed all 12(?) of the Dire Rats in the moathouse. After I had cleared out the entire moathouse and killed all enemies in the moathouse ambush, I went back inside the ground level of the moathouse, and (to my amazement) 1 Dire Rat came out of the Dire Rat lair.
The extra Dire Rat never appeared when I played 5.8.1 NC. The only things that I did differently between my playthrough of 5.8.1 NC and 5.9.1 NC is that:
While playing 5.8.1 NC, I did the moathouse ambush coming out of the secret door that leads to the moathouse outdoor map (I also never fought the stirges until I did the moathouse respawn);
While playing 5.9.1 NC, I did the moathouse ambush when I came out of Lareth's cave exit that leads to the new map to the east of the moathouse.

While playing 5.9.1 NC, I encountered the following bug while in the Hommlet map (see image below). The bug seems harmless because when I clicked just above the scroll bar, the scroll bar moved back to its normal position:

 

I'm afraid that I'm going to say that there have always been 13 rats in the first level of the moathouse. Goes all the way back to vanilla. They come out in 3s with the last one being by itself.

However, if you end up killing one right as it comes out of their hole, it's dead body blocks the entrance so no more can come out until the body is gone - like after a day or so has passed. This might have been what caused the last rat to come out on your return trip.

The same thing happens with the spiders that come out of holes in VB cave system.

 

I got jerkstop playing 5.9.1, and the more advanced forms, pickstop and smithstop. I got it late in the game when I was cleaning out the top level of the temple. I rested at the inn after finishing the top level temple and as I moved past the signpost going to sell stuff, it got me. It's kinda of humorous to watch Brother Smythe when he has jerkstop. His hammer swinging arm speeds up for like 3 or 4 strikes and then goes back to normal for a few swings and then speeds up again. Reminds me somehow of a hamster in a hamster wheel or something. It is also impossible to pick locks when jerkstopping.

 

I have gotten my game up to the point where I have collected the golden skull and gone through the nodes and collected all four gems. I went to Hommlet and provided the proper materials to Burne's assistant so that the skull could be destroyed. I have now gone back to the temple and am battling Hedrack.

However, Hedrack is not calling on Iuz. I have reloaded the battle six times now. He keeps trying to heal and throw out spells and what not. In the meantime, I have killed off all of his assistants and keep trying to whittle him down to near death without actually killing him so that he will call for help. But he still doesn't call on Iuz.

So I have to ask, has Hedrack's game casting AI been updated witht the 5.9.1 patch? I will admit that maybe my saved game is messed up (I will try from an earlier save tomorrow) but I wanted to check here as well. I was all geared up for a righteous battle against the old one himself and am kind of disappointed. If Hedrack has been updated, I would like the old version back please.

EDIT: Please disregard this post. I reloaded from my slightly earlier save and Hedrack summoned Iuz and we all battled. Must have had something going on with my save.

 

I never tried going after Hedrack after destroying the skull, but could it be with the skull gone, Iuz is weakened and so that is why he is not showing up? He is still sulking after his Precious is bye bye.

 

Ok, I went and pulled out a few boxes in my closet to confirm this but I am pretty sure that I have figured out a way that my party of characters can figure out that there are Hextor priests holed up in VB - they are hanging Hextor's symbol up on the wall. His symbol is six red arrows fanned in a downward position. I'm pretty sure that it what is hanging up in this area with those priests (I'm trying not to spoil the location for others). So am I right? If so, do I get a prize of some kind?

 

Nice idea but it has always been in the past that he will still show up. I believe that destroying the skull is supposed to weaken him as well. He certainly showed up in 5.9.0 (also in 5.8.1 and 5.5.0) even after I destroyed the skull. The trick is to still go after Hedrack.

 

Hi Necro
Is your fighter really strong and tall ?? I have been testing the Heroes Shield with both my cleric and Elmo, and neither of them can use it with a two handed weapon. The weapons I have tested it with include Light and Heavy Crossbows, Sling, Long Spear, Guisarme, Glaive, and Ranseur.
Just for the record, my cleric is 6' - 2" and has 18 ST.
The Royal Canadian

 

Jerkstop is characterized by movement commands terminating before the movement is completed, ie the party jerks to a stop. You didn't mention that, so was THAT happening?

It might be a different problem, because jerkstop is not characterized by speed changes.

 

Gotcha. Like I said, I never tried myself so I was guessing. Not sure what else may be involved then, unless a bug or stray bit of code from the ether.

 

Yes, that's what was happening. But the speed up thing with the blacksmith and not being able to pick locks is a part of it. Something with the speed of the graphics or frame rate or scripting or something is what causes jerkstop, I'm positive of it. I ran from the inn to the blacksmith past the signpost and did many stop and starts. Once I got to the blacksmith, that's when I noticed his arm revving up and cooling down and then revving up and cooling down. Same thing trying to pick the lock on the chest. I started to pick the lock but then the speed thing would kick in right at that second and stop the act, but you could still hear the actions of picking the lock and it wouldn't complete the action.

 

Not sure if this is a known bug, but I just fought a randomly encountered groaning spirit who got itself over 512 million temporary hit points! The party kept banging away at it until they did over 400 damage before I gave up.