Modified Traders Scenario mod, take two, alpha version

Modified Traders Scenario mod, v0.75

Updated to version 0.75.

Well, here it is. There's some work left to do, but most of it is there. Oh, and there are some snazzy particle effects firing all over to indicate that behind-the-scenes scripts are working. So don't worry if it looks like your party is under fire from an artillery barrage while outdoors, or about the indoors "water fountains" (these will be removed in the final version of course).

To install, I'd first of all recommend creating a copy of your ToEE folder and installing it there (or creating a duplicate module if you know how to).

Then download the following file. Extract the data folder to the main ToEE folder, and the Co8-5.0.0 folder into the modules folder.

Traders mod 0.75


New Portrait

The portrait is available as a separate file because it is not compatible with portrait packs, but fortunately it's not critical so you can skip it.
The mod is probably not compatible with old saves, but not in a game crashing way, I think.

What does the mod do? Install it and find out for yourself (or just read the spoilers below...)
There's a ton of scripting behind it. Try acting out different scenarios relating to the traders and Hommlet quests related to them, plus the Temple assassin.

 

It is - I've merged it into my previous work.

Also, I forgot to mention that it's based on Co8 5.0.5 + CMF updates.

By the way, in case it wasn't clear, the particle effects won't appear in the final version, but since this is the alpha...

If anyone's wondering what changes are included:

Content (Complete spoilers ahead! highlight to read.):

Spoiler

• Badger will break up the fight if you attack the traders. You are given the options to:

• Keep fighting - You get the Lawbreaker rep, and the fight ensues. If either trader is damaged even slightly, they will initiate the run off sequence as scripted by Liv.
• Intimidate the badger - same as above, except the badger doesn't take part in the fight
• Bluff - the success of this depends on your skill level and the traders' cooperation. If you've uncovered any of their activities (i.e. they sense there is a sufficient body of evidence to possibly bring them to trial), they will cooperate in an attempt to persuade the badger to let it drop and then immediately flee afterwards, triggering the revenge encounter in Nulb. Otherwise, they'll tell the badger you're full of it, and you may get arrested if your bluff skill isn't exceptional.
• Smooth talk your way out of it - similar to bluff, only dependant on diplomacy skill instead, and the skill check doesn't depend on the traders' cooperation. They will also flee in this case, provided there is evidence against them.
• The default option - utter a stupid excuse for attacking them and get arrested for it, Lawbreaker rep included.
  • See Lawbreaker bullet for more details.
• Will be added later - if you're investigating them for burne, it will be taken into consideration.

​

• Hired goons: If you've assaulted the traders without evidence, they'll return exactly two days later with two thugs to guard them, and will be quite hostile to you - warning you to leave their shop immediately or be attacked.
• Lawbreaker status:
  • If you assault the traders and don't convince the badger that it was nothing, or worse, intimidate him/continue fighting, you are given the Lawbreaker reputation. Residents of Hommlet will refuse to deal with you, and Badgers will attempt to arrest you, delivering you to Burne.
    • Will be added later: Reinforcements to badgers, Hommlet sleep status changed to "Yellow Tent" with badger party sleep encounters a la resting in the Moathouse, Temple, Wilderness, etc. There's already a counter in place for how many Badgers were killed while Lawbreaker, which could be used to simulate a finite number of spawning Badgers and even trigger outside intervention if enough time has passed after slaughtering the badgers.
  • Of course, if you show up in Burne's tower, he will initiate the arrest procedure himself.
  • What happens if you're arrested and brought before Burne?
    • First off, you are given a chance to explain yourself.
    • The more evidence you have, the easier it is to talk your way out.
    • However, if you have murdered (i.e. actually killed - nonlethally subduing doesn't count) anyone* while Lawbreaker, you won't be forgiven - you will be given directions to Nulb and be banished from Hommlet, with an appropriate reputation. As with Lawbreaker status, Hommlet residents will refuse to deal with you, and some will even attack on sight (including the badgers obviously). You can, of course, ignore Burne's sentence and just fight...
      • *currently just badgers, will be expanded to other Hommletans later.
      • The Nulb innkeeper's dialogue has been slightly modified to account for this option (it used to be that the game assumed you cleared the Moathouse when you reached him, as reflected in his vanilla dialogue - this has been changed)
    • None of the above? Then you will be locked up in the Tower basement for a couple of week to reflect upon your actions. You may even meet a certain priest of lolth given the right conditions. Should you return later to question him, the Badgers will acknowledge this (and make the dialogue check harder too, since they won't be fooled by an ex-con as easily)
      • Broke out of jail? Your status is similar to the Banishment case. (needs a bit of additional work, though)
      • Two weeks later you are released, but forever branded an ex-Convict.
      • Will be added later: requiring you to leave your items/weapons behind (kind of silly to lock up heavily armed adventurers as is).
    • The Lawbreaker, Convict, Ex-Convict and Banished reps could be used later - recognised by Nulb and Temple NPCs, for instance (some may react favourably to it).
• Some tweaks to the traders' dialogue. Lawful parties will have to pass a slightly harsher check for attacking from dialogue. Includes taking Corl's assassination into account, provided that his father mentioned the traders' suspicious activities.
• A scripted council meeting to discuss Rannos and Gremag's transgression (be it the assassination attempt or operating the laborer spy), if they haven't run away yet due to being attacked.
  • Unless you've suggested to Burne that security ought to be tightened, a trap will go off during that event. If you are in attendence, you can help evacuate the survivors. The Miller's life depends on this (should he die, his servant will be quite saddened)
    • Some neat scripting outside the Hall after this has transpired, including Terjon and Jaroo healing people (pay attention for a small jab at Terjon )
    • You are then given a chance to track the traders (several clues have been provided as to where they might be). They are in hiding (exact location is randomised slightly in principle, though I've turned off the randomisation for ease of testing), but given the right set of abilities (or companions...) you may be able to uncover them. This reminds me that I've forget to re-enable the listen check...
      • One of the possibilities is to track them into an encampment in the wilderness, or into Nulb if that they've already left it (this is random in nature, mostly because the unavoidable encounters a la the assassin aren't exactly deterministic).
    • Oh, and the Stonemason gets it. There's a decent fight for low level parties at his house. I've also inserted a provision for resurrecting him, but it's only locally implemented right now (i.e. only the mason will acknowledge this)

• Some goofy dialogue for low int characters (not thst the placeholder dialogue isn't goofy in general )

Technical:

• New event timing system, based on scripting, saving time of occurence of actions in global vars, and the game.time methods found by Cerulean. It's meant to replace the timevent_add method, which has proved to be unreliable. Also, there's now a solid basis in place for creating regular council meetings in the Hommlet Town Hall every month, at a precise hour. A script is included to pass the exact amount of time till the next council, so you don't have to rest manually. (As per the module description, the council convenes at the beginning of every new month)

• Bullet proofed Corl's assassination.

• Trader runoff sequence triggered earlier: The runoff condition is lowered to any minor injury, including nonlethal damage, and the traders now also check to see if the other trader is hurt, or even prone, as well as their own health.
• One of the things that cause ToEE's scripting to break down is overabundance of heartbeats firing. This has caused me much grief, the solution being to concetrate the heartbeat scripting into as few objects as possible. That the OF_OFF status makes NPCs invisible to other script objects was a pain as well. Eventually I found a way around this, fortunately.

Credits also go to many Co8 regulars who have participated in discussion and feedback back when I first began working on this, and of course especially to Gaear who got off his butt and fixed errors introduced by me and even restructured the traders' and Burne's dialogue (one thing that irked me was how crowded their dialogue was - I always put off restructuring that because I hated messing with the voiced speech files)

 

Update to version 0.4.

Includes:

• Burne proactive on prison break.
• Fixed some issues with tracking traders to Nulb/campout, including re-enabling the listen check
• Implemented item removal and requipment in imprisonment scenario
• Finish dialogue for "I'm working for Burne" dialogue option in badger interrupt
• Wrote dialogue/scripting for a council meeting whose topic is the assassination attempt
• Integrated erkper's dialogue touchups
• Accounted for Burne in party while assaulting traders (he will break the fight up instead of the badger if that's the case)
• When you're a lawbreaker/convict/butcher/exile, the Hommlet sleep status changes to 'Yellow Tent'. The sleep encounters (which have varyting probability, depending on where you rest) include badgers, whose numbers gradually increase depending on how many of them you've killed, culminating in a fight with several badgers, Burne, Rufus, and Renton (after which no more badgers will spawn). A time stamp recording is also made, allowing to script a serious retribution encounter after enough time has passed)
• Accounted for death of Burne in badger interrupt, trader runoff , council scripting (badger interrupt and council meeting won't happen in this case)
• Implemented more refined probability setup for sleep encounters, including a conversion table in the script comments (the table converts probability of encounter per 1 hour rest to probability of encounter per 8 hour rest period)
• Various tweaks and dialogue touchups...

By the way, just because it's an alpha, it doesn't mean you can't report bugs... it's hard to thoroughly test every little change. Suggestions for dialogue changes/refinements are also welcome - I'm far from a great writer, not to mention my ESL-hood...

 

Update to version 0.5. (see first post for most of the files, plus the portrait file in this post since I ran out of attachment slots there)

(hopefully it'll be finished in less than 5 updates from now, or I'll have to resort to secondary version numbers )

Anyway, it's getting pretty close to being functionally complete. I think most of the dialogue is done too. It could probably be finished in under a month, but I'll be cautious and say somewhere between 3 months and half a year.

Changes included:

• Fix for Burne appearing in castle despite being killed outside (it must be the shopkeeper Burne)
• Various tweaks and fixes to Burne's dialogue and script
• Fixed some "Traders' Trail" script bugs
• Tweak to Wat's dialogue
• Fix to Rufus' disappearance
• Handled option when player tells Rufus about spy (instead of telling Burne about it) - will cause Burne to hijack the conversation if he's there; if he's not (e.g. you killed him, or recruited Rufus, took him outside and talked to him there) then the council events simply won't be initiated.
• Portrait for "Traders' Trail" script device
• Accounted for Burne in party while investigating traders (he will now initiate dialogue with you as soon as you leave the shop; what he says will depend on your success. Should you complete the quest successfully, he will disband from the party and initiate the council events scenario)
• Accounted for Pishella and/or Rufus in party while attacking traders in their store (makes them leave the party)
• Made Burne, Rufus and Pishella refuse to join with you after assaulting traders
• Fixed Rannos and Gremag runoff in the Hommlet Exterior area
• Added another dialogue node to Burne for fast forwarding the time to the council
• Revamped timing system a little, clearing up a few global vars in the process and bulletproofing council timing for games that spill over to the year 580 or more
• Added option for evil parties/PCs to ignore Smigmal's act and kill her anyway (even without calling her bluff)
• Small tweak for Hommlet Inn script
• Removed Turuko's heartbeat script (moved code into scripting object in the Inn)
• Likewise for Kobort

What remains to be done:

• Thicken badger guard array when you're lawbreaker (after an hour has passed since assault)
• Account for butcher of Hommlet in council convening, badger scripts (meaning they should aggro you!)
• Make badgers react to Lawbreaker rep when Burne is dead in more appropriate way (currently they just override the arrest sequence and ignore you)
• Account for Rannos and Gremag's assassination quests
• Finish writing diplomacy dialogue for talking to badger, and script proper runoff from that node
• Make non-dungeon badgers proactive on prison break
• Complete dialogue stubs for Burne's commentary on council events
• Make Paladins fall when doing bad stuff
• Replace placeholder text with non-goofy stuff...
• Figure out why map 5016 goes kos when convict but not butcher
• Write dialogue/scripting for ordinary council

For release:

• Make the scripting device invisible in the chase scenario
• Re-enable randomness of Traders' location in the chase scenario
• Disable all the particle effects
• Integrate portrait with portrait pack revamp

"Cool list": (or perhaps content for another mod)

• Do the 'cooperate with traders' branch
• Make Nulb/Temple denizens react to what you do in Hommlet (in particular, lawbreaker/con/ex-con/exile reps)

To install the portrait, extract this file into the data folder. Be aware that it's not compatible with any portrait pack! (if you don't install it, the portrait for the script device will be a black square with a cursor inside)
Oh, and I hope Krunch doesn't mind, but for now I've hijacked the portrait slot he reserved for his bard. (seems unlikely he'll need it, seeing as it lay unused for over a year and a half now, but should he object I'll happily restore it)


Comments? Suggestions? Feedback?

 

They're two of the goons from Liv's encounter.

As for protos.tab, I agree that keeping a dedicated thread is a good idea. Of course, using file comparison programs is also very handy for this.

P.S.
I've noticed that the portrait has been downloaded 6 times, but not the rest of the updated files (which are in the first post). In case it wasn't clear, most of the actual update files are in the first post.

 

Yes, you can attack them, and they will appear in the Nulb encounter if Rannos or Gremag run away.

I can see how that would be goofy, yes. They're definitely unique enough to not be considered generic thugs. So either I prevent them from spawning in the Revenge Encounter, or create new thugs (or both). I'd hate to lessen the difficulty of the Revenge Encounter, so I guess new thugs should be created. What portraits do you suggest?

 

What's "the treatment"?

 

Slaver! :rant:

In any case, i could do one portrait, and use it for both, while they're individual (not belonging to any other group), they're not main charcters. Or they could be twins


@Sitra

the "treatment"... shhh, none asks that aloud! It's Co8 darkest secret