"Hendrick, Culbert, and Luz"

Okay, making some progress on this ...

1. Added a failsafe for Cuthbert and Iuz to go away during combat if they should happen to find themselves still there after they were supposed to leave. So C and I will not persist in any combat after the intervention, no matter what.
2. Removed the only 'if' involved in Hedrack summoning Iuz after he's 50% or lower. This means that no matter where you are, Iuz will show. This is probably what was potentially hanging things at this juncture previously. However, see *.
3. Made it so that Cuthbert will only show if you are in the general vicinity of Hedrack (dead or alive). This is because Iuz seems to always want to go back to his spawning point when combat stops, and being as he is always spawned near Hedrack, by Hedrack, he will always go back there. If you happen to be far away from Hedrack with Iuz when Cuthbert spawns, Iuz will run back there, out of range for the Cuthbert dialogue. This will cause the problem where Cuthbert stands there and says nothing becuase he can't find Iuz to switch dialogue to. So beware - if you lead Iuz on a wild goose chase far away from Hedrack, Cuthbert won't come to save you. (The reason these measures are necessary at all is because of the wacky back and forth dialogue.)
4. Added an 'attack' script after Iuz fails to persuade you so that he doesn't just stand there.
5. Modified various KOS flags and routines and shitlist conditions so that combat only starts when it's supposed to. (I think random monsters were often reinitiating combat at odd times due to being KOS.)
6. Added various particle and sound effects where appropriate to make the god stuff more dramatic.
7. Made it so that Iuz creates type-specific zombies with all their prior abilities in the place of dead opponents instead of just making generic zombies. These are essentially the same protos of the deceased with undead properties switched in, which seems to have some effect on their abilities, such as attacks per round. This seems appropriate though IMO, as they are basically lesser versions of their former selves anyway. Iuz will also now raise gargoyles along with Hedrack, because zombie gargoyles don't make any sense.

Still to do:

• Spell buffing tweaks.
• *Might actually have to make it so that Hedrack doesn't summon Iuz unless you're in his vicinity either, to avoid the problem where Iuz shows up and doesn't attack after his speech because there's no one to target. Unfortunately Hedrack is critical to these scripts firing properly, but being primarily a spellcaster he doesn't follow you around, so ...

Notes:

• Cuthbert is a member of his own faction, so it's possible that he may attack some players due to you having offended his faction severely enough. Also, once he's in the combat queue he may carry out AoOs given the opportunity even if he doesn't attack outright, which itself will give him a future target and make him hostile. (This is all was ... shouldn't be an issue anymore.)
• There's probably no entirely effective way to foolproof this routine for people who are determined to break it. :shrug:
• As always, this will require further playtesting from the playing public before it gets 'perfected,' so please bear that in mind before launching "Co8 sucks!" critiques.

If you kill him, most definitely.

I assume it's like any other raise dead scenario.

I don't see that changing. Why would Cuthbert care what you do/think or listen to what you say? Their affairs, as he says, are "not for mortal ears," as per the module.

What exactly is 'the polearm technique?' As for AI, he has none beyond the basic melee attack nearest. I recall that was discussed long ago, being as he's actually supposed to have all sorts of (unimplemented) spellcasting abilities and whatnot. Troika never gave him anything more than his killer melee attacks though; not sure we should change that. Besides, when you dish out dozens of HP damage for each of nine attacks every turn, does it really matter? Seriously though, what would you like him to do?

Hm, that's a good point about comments. However there is no audio to support it. There should likely be commentary from other NPCs as well, being as the single most significant entity in the game is now dead. Question is, how far do we go, and where do we stop?

The module says that once Zuggtmoy is dead, the Nodes close and disappear. I wonder if the Temple itself shouldn't shut down as well in our case. Although obviously the new Zuggtmoy scenarios are for people interested in playing the new content, so I'm not sure why the focus would really be on what's going on in the Temple at that point.

Also I don't understand your last request.

Bear in mind also that we're generally talking about avatars here, the endslides notwithstanding. Mortals don't kill gods, so your interaction with Iuz would probably be seen as fairly insignificant to Cuthbert, even if his avatar was about to be killed. According to canon, they have much bigger and more significant disputes than simply what's going on at the ToEE.

 

Part of the issue here, theme-wise, is that Troika and the module are at cross purposes. Like silo25 says, in the module it explicitly stated that the only possible outcome when Iuz appeared (if he appeared - it wasn't guaranteed), absent Cuthbert's intervention, was death. There would be absolutely zero chance of beating Iuz. Troika however obviously wanted to give you the chance, unlikely as it may be, because there's an endslide for it. The thing that neither of them mentions or implies anywhere is that you can put off Cuthbert when he shows up, so being as we abide thematically by the module and Troika, that won't be changing. You'll get your four rounds to try to kill Iuz and that's it.

It should also be noted that the Troika versions of Iuz and Cuthbert were dramatically nerfed. They got tuned up somewhat in our proto overhaul, but they are still very nerfy compared to what they should be. If we were going on real stats, there would be equally no chance to kill Iuz in the CRPG. So in essence you are being tossed a very nice, round softball here, courtesy of Troika, and still having it considered the real thing. If it were up to me it would never happen this way.

I do understand though that ToEE primarily serves as a tactical combat simulator and that people play it largely for challenges in that regard. That's why the Demons and Demigods stuff exists. People have always wanted to try their hand at killing these 'gods' (they are the most difficult single protos the game has), so in Demons and Demigods you get to have at it - within what I think is the proper context: they are simply avatars of the gods themselves. Even at level 20, you aren't really killing gods.

 

Question: does any special form of silliness ensue in this battle when/if Senshock and/or Deggum (and/or possibly Barkinar) wander into the area and get involved?