Utraean Seizure of hopless Mapping

Very nice. Will make progress through the Utraean Peninsula much smoother for everyone. I'll make sure to include those in the current revision.

@Iryan: I intend to use this auxiliary save point feature on the Diabloish map as well, since many of its save points aren't really satisfying - often there is neither stash nor NPCs (for shopping/resurrection).

However you should keep in mind that in this case the player will return to the center of a node (the node where the lever was or the node as specified in the [portal_data_save] component of the lever), hence the center should be accessible (otherwise the teleportation gets rejected).

Mood and player location will be re-applied automatically, but possible node-fades won't.
Currently the levers are using an animation that works with many other single-bone meshes too, so the mesh/model easily can replaced in the SE2 by anything more pleasant.

Thanks for the tips. The new feature seems to work well.

If you think this looks okay I'll replace the current save setup with this in the Utraean Peninsula.

On a sidenote what do you think of using the tuning system in the map? I've been experimenting with it and got it producing results similar to what you normally get around Elddim but with the randomness that the tuning system provides.

I like it but that really would be up to KillerGermal and You Irwin. If it works that is all that really matters to the

@Iryan: I like that look.
Finally however the player should just be able to recognize/remember what it's used for. So if you think some variation would be appropriate between the maps (or even between regions) you shouldn't constrain yourself.

About the 'tuning system'- i guess you mean the tuning grid system!?
Generally it would be cool if a map had this feature, but implementing it as described for dozens of regions looks pretty painful. Whether or not it's possible to pick out the randomized monster placement I can't say.

I agree with you and decided not to implement it. It's not that hard to do but the way SE2 implements it is buggy. The first few times I tried it I wasn't successfull but managed to get a tuning grid working in Elddim (Town_Center). Then when using the exact same technique in River_Forest it wouldn't build the grid. I don't know why and I'm not inclined to spend any time to try to find out. It does take a while, about 30 minutes to set the map up (placing new development paths as it doesn't like the old ones, even when region_monsters is named appropriately) and then about 1 hour to generate the grid. Finally I had to manually tune the grid as otherwise you get a wall of monsters, etc.

Final summary, nice feature but more trouble than it is worth to implement it.

As partially mentioned in this forum there were recently problems that monster sounds did not play (correctly).

 
I have to apologize, the main reason for this matter was in the Content Mod Alpha 10c (earlier versions were affected probably too).
Unfortunately this bug remained hidden for so long because of another sound related 'phenomenon' in the audio support of monsters. Evidentially we had some bad luck too always testing (...trying out) those monsters where this phenomenon didn't become transparent in it's full dimension.

Actually there are two types of monster sounds, one type individually/customly assigned in aspect:voice, and the other type depending on the material the monster is made of (as defined in aspect:material, in combination with the monster's current action the list in sounddb.gas will tell DS2 which sound to play).
To fix now many aspect:voice sounds there is now an update of the Content mod: Alpha 10d.

 
Nonetheless it may be that another sound related update will be necessary.
During a short test, sometimes the attack sounds from aspect:voice did play at the same time as the material sounds did, while for other attacks there was no sound at all.

The only sounds from aspect:voice that seems to play always are the sounds for [move] and for [hit_critical].
For monsters with a complete aspect:voice part it would be possible to disable the material sounds though (with material = ; for example), sadly the monster won't have any blood then... :o

I'm really not happy about this, it's still a bit confusing and I should do some more tests. Well possible that sound priorities and the 'sed' files have something to do with it too.

I'm getting sounds again using the DS1 base sound resources and not the converted DS2 ones so all's good. This is using the DS1_Test_Version.ds2res that I posted in the other thread. All the templates should already be using DS2 material but it's too early to say whether there'll be any incompatibilities. So far the sounds work with the Krug, Krug Dog, Farm Skrubb and Phrak. Monster calls, hits and death sounds all play.

I tested the monster sounds as follows I installed Mod-DS1Content-Alpha10d and used DS1_Logic_Beta_7b and ran through to the broken bridge in Kingdom of Ehb and the storage cave in Legends of Aranna trying to remember all of the monster sounds like attack, dieing and so on. In most cases I thought I had all the monster sounds, however when I exchanged DS1_Logic_Beta_7b for DS1_Logic_Test_Version I noted an improvement in almost every monster. I think the changes you both made have really improved the game ************************************************************************************************** There is no point it is all a dream someday I will wake and really screem wishing I was back in this strange little dream.

Got tired of seeing just blue and yellow monsters, so I did some looking to see how to adjust for higher level differences.

If you set the fog adjustments in the monster_level_adjust moods to:

[fog]
  {
    fog_lowdetail_near_dist = 1.500;  // -1.500;
    fog_lowdetail_far_dist = 0.500;  // -0.500;

    fog_near_dist = 4.500;  // -2.500;
    fog_far_dist = 0.500;  // -1.000;

    fog_color = 0x042E80ff;  // 0x042E60ff;    // hex:20 = 32, hex:60 = 96
  }

You will get monsters 1-4 levels above your character.

Ensure the fog_color is adjusted also, otherwise higher level monsters will have reduced life.

As you can see above, there is now the Content Mod Alpha v10g, generally fixing the health/mana fountains and how the mood is reapplied after using the portal at session start.

As technical remark, for the 'session portal levers' it's not necessary and not recommended to add a (nearby) mood trigger (only fade triggers for region parts may be needed).
If a mood trigger should be required nonetheless, it's strongly recommended to delay the mood by 7-8 seconds (there should be an old and new way to set this up in the trigger).

Another (funny?) thing: I was surprised to find out (after all that time) that the texture for the default barrel ('barrel_glb_01') looks different in DS1 than in DS2. :o
That's not world-shaking of course, however things to smash have some relevance in this type of games, and so the DS1 look/barrel would be available again with 'barrel_glb_ds1', able to drop some loot/coins.
Actually 'barrel_glb_01' can't drop any loot, however there are numerous 'barrel_glb_...' of the same look that can do it (just see the extra comment in SE2).

I just found this not long ago, so of course I'm not up-to-speed with the progress and the current state, whats been pointed out and what hasn't, but while playing through the extremely difficult, (Yet amazingly possible) Game. I found that a person I remember was to be found dead, In the Fallraen caves, where the person should be, there is only a miniature figure. Going back I found 3 of them in the crystwind mines. Is this only because it's not finished? Again I'm unfamiliar with this being intentional or not.

Edit: Actually I just got the maps working right and I'm going to try finding the bodies again to see if it fixed itself.

Hi KillerGremal.
I was sitting in Hiroth at the time you released the update to Mod-DS1Content-Alpha10D to Alpha10G when I entered Castle Hiroth (the front yard so to speak before the actual castle interior, I noticed some black and yellow boxes that means something was not correctly displayed. So I took a screen shot and then started again with Alpha10G turned off and Alpha10D turned back on. The yellow and black boxes where gone.
I am posting a screen shot of each because I can not tell you what is missing. Must need new glasses. Oh and both screenies are after all the skeletons had been killed and the loot picked up.

I found that area in SE2 and strangely enough it appears the culprit is generator_generic_utrea which is actually meant to be invisible. It's function is to spawn enemies when you pass a trigger. GPG used this technique extensively in the castle area of both Hiroth and Ehb to try to prevent the engine being slowed down by rendering too many enemies at once.

I haven't actually tried Alpha10G so I haven't had a chance to see the glitch. I'll try to have a look to see what it may be.

#Update: Comparing generator_generic_utrea between Alpha10D and Alpha10G revealed that there's a line added to the aspect block as so; aspect:lru_bonus_percent = 0.078125;

Probably could be simply fixed by assigning an invisible texture in the aspect block.

The game seems to be seeing this as a model and so displaying the yellow/black block indicative of a missing model or texture. The function of the line seems to be to spawn a boss instead of a regular monster, depending on the value set.

Thanks for the feedback!
I will fix it soon, force_no_render = true will make this generator invisible again.

I love the giant ants very cool. Oh by the way the black and yellow boxes do generate nasty things in the castle. Great stuff love the cat sounds in Hiroth and the frog sounds too.

Update, Content Mod (Alpha 10h):

• Visibility problem with a common generator fixed.
• The portal at session start has got a (slightly) different texture and will use now a random position offset (not to overlap an incoming town portal).
• Pressing Ctrl+Alt while clicking on a rejuvenation in your inventory will make this potion change its screen name to show the current start/resurrection position.
• Fix to make light effect of icy lanterns correctly scale up/down depending on the size of the lantern.

Update, LevelAdjustment Mod (Beta 4j):

• Revised resistance handling: If a monster already has melee or ranged resistances they will change +/-0.4% per level raised/lowered by default, and if there are already magical resistances they will be raised/lowered by +/-0.8% per level by default. So now the monster level assigned in the monster's template has a higher significance (as reference for existing resistances), beside of this the [monster_level_adjust_stats] component has got two new properties to tune individually the marginal resistance growth per level in each template.
• Support for breakable/attackable objects added (non-actors).
• Influence of difficulty settings on monster's defense values lowered (to have less impact on player's damage value).
• 'Mood tweak' expanded by an option (party_light:vert_offset) to respawn more monsters depending on the number of party members.

Hi KillerGremal,
I have downloaded the updates and will give them a look just as soon as I can. Sounds like they will fix a few things.

:Elf:

UPDATE: I also installed the updates that iryan did for the Legends of Aranna. I had lots of problems with exception detected messages when trying to teleport. First I misread Iryan's readme file and removed several files that where required for all the maps to work. Second I did not see the fact that I needed to convert the Expansion.dsmap and ExpVoices.dsres. Now that I have all the proper files back in the resources folder and the two additional files converted things appear to be working as you said they would.

The Shades around the lost pyramids now can be killed, not very easily but they no longer gain health each time you attack them. I will check out the skeletons in the Fury's Den to see what occurs but I think the fix is in. I will finish the map and let you know. If you read the other post about the problems I was having I am sorry for the confusion. That post has been deleted. (being a moderator can be useful at times).

Blind :Elf:

No need to apologise, I just wish it was easier to install the mod. After I fix all remaining issues as much as I can I plan to release my part of the mod with an installer. I'm not sure what KillerGremal plans to do or what we can do about the need to convert the 5 original DS1 tanks to DS2 format. Suggestions are welcome.

It's messy having 11 files required to make the mod work but there are advantages in having a modular setup during beta testing as each file can be quickly updated as needed without having to download the entire mod.

Sooner than expected there is a new version of the LevelAdjustment mod, Beta 4k (link above).

One or the other (life-related) formula wasn't as elaborated as it should be (partially producing quite extreme health point amounts, towards both ends of the scope).

I'll try out both updates (this and Arhok Beta 4) straight away.

As for the installation concerns, Bare_Elf was chatting to some of the other players and their concensus was that the current situation is fine but if the conversion auxiallary tool for converting DS1 resources to DS2 was a little easier to use with prehaps the ability to search for the resources and then copy them to the correct place, then that would make it easier for new players inexperienced with installing mods. Of course this is hardly very easy to do.

At least a modular form is easier to update individual files without having to redownload everything.

Hi KillerGremal,
I downloaded the file about 10 minutes after you posted it and so far so good no 'bird' flu with any of the quest related guards. If there is another flu outbreak I will let you know
Thank You

There's now a revised version of the Level Adjustment mod (link above).

Instead of an auxiliary mood a special configuration table is used now.
Compared to the mood some values/ratios have changed (by *100) since the table is generally using percentages (0-100).
The configuration mood is still supported partially, but only the most important settings will be respected.

Great Job, will make things easier for everyone. I'll try it out straight away

The new Beta 5a of the Level Adjustment mod will fix a (minor) exp lack.
Also several other things have changed in the background, so feel to stress-test it.

Stress testing is always fun.

Stress I love stress, and I love testing so its off to give the new level adjust mod a run for its life.

Seems the timer is off again for adjustments. Krug Shaman, Guard and Dog are all affected.