Modified Traders Scenario mod, take two, alpha version

I have tested and replicated another bug. After killing some pirates in a wandering encounter, Burne, the Wench, and probably others go hostile on my Lawful Good Party.

The absentee and blinking issue stopped on its own and could not be replicated. I'm pretty sure it existed at the time I saved the game, but it now performs normally.

 

This should be my last addition to this thread. I thought I should report that the huge encounter in the Tower has all the defenders stand around like they are stoned. No reaction whatsoever. The initiative counter seems to skip over their portraits.

Also, there seems to be nothing on the Ruined House map. I thought it peculiar that my party can move to the northern part of that map.

I plan to install 5.0.6 now

 

Sitra, thanks for the PM. My old saves worked as well, but I started over nevertheless.

True, they did absolutely nothing, no spells, nothing. Yes, Serena was left-most. I learned to put the weak ones to the left of the order so that when they enter rooms, they stay closest to the exit. I suppose you are going to tell me there is a problem with that.

 

Yes, I am

The brigand leader is scripted to talk to the leftmost character. If it's an NPC, maybe that's what causes problems. Try moving a PC in that spot (you can keep Serena second from the left). From memory, there are probably other scripts that assume the party talker is the leftmost guy, so it'd be best to keep her away from there. I guess I'll have to bulletproof the script for cases like that.

Anyway, tell me if moving Serena works.

 

Crap! That requirement really sucks! Ever since the Orc Cave I learned to protect my NPCs this way. I only have two PCs and they're both muscle-heads. I suppose I'll just have to see how fast the monk can move and enjoy his 6 Int dialog.

 

This is pure speculation, but perhaps this caused some of the other problems you've been experiencing that I could not replicate?

 

Reading through the bug-reports, I'd say it was. Quests won't activate if an NPC is in slot 1 either, so there really is no need to bulletproof for that. Simple way to bulletproof should slot 1 PC be down is to then search for someone with a decent relevant 'face' skill. Some scripts used to use that a lot from the get-go but if you search for one skill, it ain't always the chosen face character who has the highest rank in it which can be a tad annoying if the dialogue calls for using more than just, say, intimidate.

 

Ok, I can now confirm that putting Serena in the leftmost position does indeed cause the dialogue error. Doing the Orc Cave with a PC in the leftmost position fixed the problem.

Having her there seems to reset the variable game.areas[3] to 0 when you enter a new map, for some reason. Who knows what else it causes. So there

Also, on a side note, I noticed that you don't use any hotkeys, Basil. To assign hotkeys to actions in the radial menu, press the key you want to be assigned, and then select the action from the menu.
For instance:
Press Ctrl+E. The radial menu will appear. Now select 'Charge Attack', and voila, you have a hotkey for that action.
I typically use A for 5' step, E for charge attack, Y for read magic, B for fireball, Q for full attack, W for ready vs. approach, Z for sneak, G for magic missile, and V for scribe scroll.

Another worrying issue I've encountered, though, is the loading time slowdown. It seems to be specific to Hommlet... will have to see about that. Personally, I haven't encountered that in my own game, which seems to be farther along the plotline than what you've sent me.

 

Hmmm. Perhaps I should color code my keyboard too. Thanks for the suggestion. I do apologize if I wasted your time because of the NPC thing.

Edit: Could I just start from my last save point, put the PC in the lead and revisit those areas for normal play?