Dungeon Siege Adepts 2 for Broken World

ds1 itself actually had a unsummon spell not sure if it worked with these or not... imagine ds2 could have one to if one made a spell script and put the unsummon code in it that the summons all use. hint hint if u find time to want to try your hand at making a fast spell

was paying 53.20 a month for dsl and it wasn't even 1Mbps, people only 3mile away were getting like 15Mbps for that price so was very upset, and the fact I haven't worked since Oct 2011 means I cant afford dsl anymore, heck I cant even afford the 10 dollar dialup, but I need the net to look for potential jobs since everything is on the net now days.

You are right Dark_Elf I did as you said and the summoned character went away. I thought it was not working because I forgot the summon was in an auto-cast slot in the spell book. Oops, the elf goofed again

oops off topic... keke~ :mrgreen:

Good news, thanks very much for testing. Remember this is only 1 map out of a potential 6!, though the DS1 MapPack still is bugged.

If you have already recruited the characters in DS2 they won't be there in the outpost as they are already in your party/inn (though there's the infamous inn bug which I haven't noticed but others talk about all the time). You can easily verify this by starting a new game in Broken World with one of the premade characters; then Lothar, Deru and the rest will be there. Though currently Lothar, Deru and Amren are sulking and won't talk to you.

I see you found out how to cancel the summons and that Valdis is a royal pain to fight with a large party. You really have to adjust your tactics for this fight and the poor ai routines don't help. You also have to turn off the auto-enrage options as well as you don't want to fight him at all until his sword is broken. Plus another bug I've encountered was that my hero invariably gets stuck in the lava when it appears and can't move. This means Valdis will hang around the hero instead of being a good boy and running off chasing the rest of the party and standing in front of the obelisks to get zapped. Probably the worst boss fight in all of videogame history! I wonder how hard it would be to adjust the scripting so that you could fight him normally except for perhaps the final obelisk where he dies?

Here's the next Alpha: http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/DS2BW_Adepts_Logic_Alpha_1i.ds2res

I've managed to get all DS2 characters working for the outpost in Broken World if you're either beginning a new game there with a premade character or missed one or more of the characters during play or couldn't be bothered hiring one or more of the characters.

As I suspected there was a missing animation during Deru's ambient talk_flick which stopped her talking to you and I ended up commenting out the ambient flicks for Lothat and Amren so that the real Lothar and Amren would appear and talk to you. The whole purpose of the ambient flicks was to give the impression that the characters were doing something in the world. I was going to try to add use_points near the characters to see if that worked but I remembered that there's no support for Broken World in SE2. I made a test setup but quickly abandoned it after a couple of billion popup warning messages and searching the forums here revealed that such modding icons as Ghastley and KillerGremal had little success without a lot of tedious effort so there was no hope for me.

I'm also starting on the portrait icons for all the npc characters and will also start debugging the DS1 MapPack in earnest. I'm starting with the Half-Giants and Dwarves and the Dryads will be last as Kathcf is working on some skins for them. Probably a future revision of the mod will add more npcs to the world (there's plenty of unique skins for them) and maybe a few secrets. Obviously these would be only be for the DS2 world due to the limitations of the editor in regards to Broken World.

@Iryan,
Things are working just fine even after adding the update (checked Deru and such with premade). Now I continue with my DS2 party we have finished all of the quests for act 1 and are currently looking about Amen'lu for the secondary quests.

I was able to speak with and recruit Yoren and Ressa without any problems at all. I put Yoren back in the inn until he is needed. Ressa is in my party now as it is always useful to have a twisted ranger about. I have spoken to Celebhel and have two of his soul stones. Need to complete Vai'kesh Part II to find his third simulacrum who went to the Vai'kesh and grab that soul stone so that I can finish this quest. I think you have the conversations working. I have not encountered any problems weird or otherwise. Will continue tomorrow.

@Iryan
I have noted that a majority of the NIS sequences tend to run on long after the conversation or explaination is given both in DS2 and Broken World. There is another weirdness when the NIS sequences contain Dryads. They tend to fall over a lot or look as if they where sleeping on the ground. Since I have no idea how an nis sequence is put together I can only assume the Dryads have been drinking way to much wine and are dead drunk. These problems where not an issue because I could always escape out of a long NIS. However I just reached the Solanum through the portal in Amen'lu As I was traveling over the bridge and before I opened the door the NIS Sequence started. All the dryads where asleep on the floor except the Great Leader and Celia. He raises the portal and tells the dryads to go to their new city. They jump up and run off and Celia falls over. At this point where I would have expected the Great Leader to speak to my party the sequience freezes on a closeup of the wood and rope of the portal. I waited watching the light on my hard drive flashing rapidly figuring that at some point the seqquience would complete. At this point several things not related to the game happened so I was AFK for at least 30 minutes. The NIS was still stuck on the detail of the portal. So I pressed escape and nothing occured at all. Pressing ctrl-alt-del did not do anything either. The system was locked up on a gray screen for a very long time before I forced a reboot.

After I post this I will start the game again in Amen'lu and enter the portal and just let it run to see how long it takes if ever for the NIS sequience to end. Did you observe any of these things Iryan?

In DS2 the lacking animations effect Celia's and Amren's sequence in Eirolan, Tanzi's encounter with a Haku, the innkeeper and others who should be hoeing or sweeping and now the dryad encounter in Solanum.

The boys are fine as they use the male DS2 animations.

Up until now this lacking animations problem was just an annoyance but if it can lock up a machine then that's serious. I would try cancelling the NIS straight away, there's a known issue with DS2 with certain mods that it can lock up if there's no player input after a certain amount of time. This is most notable in the DS1 MapPack where a game can lock up even after 5 minutes of inactivity or even just walking a long distance without fighting. Before the respawning monsters were added I use to deliberately cast spells every few minutes to ensure the game didn't lock up.

Regardless of whether or not cancelling the NIS sequences works, I'll have to start investigating in earnest how to bypass the lacking animations. Since I have no idea whatsoever of how to add these missing animations I'll have to look at modifying the flicks so that only simple working animations are used.

@ Iryan
Since I am unable to pass the Solanum NIS I decided to take a premade character into broken world and look at the earlier NIS to see if they had improved.
I can say that they have as none of the Dryads play dead any longer, Celia is still a bit confused as just before she speaks she kind of tips over backwards and ends up falling on her butt. In one case she stood back up rubbed her rear and conversed with me. After we wacked Kendrick.I am heading for the next NIS with Celia now I am in the Arinth's Heights .looking for Warden to see what happens this time (should work because it did before). I want to get to Amen'lu and check the NIS with a new team that has never been there. Should reach that point sometime tomorrow. Once again I was to slow to make a screen shot of Celia falling on her butt. It is quite funny.
Warden Celia sat on a wall
Warden Celia had a great fall.
All Eva's horses
And all Eva's Men
Could not put Celia together again.

lol elfy nicely paraphrased nursery rhyme. u really dislike celia dont u? i'd bet u play all the celia falling down NIS-es randomly and repeatedly when u are feeling down to ch33r urself up.

celia's bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down
while bare elfy's bridge goes up, celia's bridge falls down

we shud make a celia punching game (spun off from the punch ur boss video game) on adobe flash for bare elf lol~ :mrgreen:

Irwin,
The last change to npc_dd_ds2x.gas (version 4 June 11th 2013) corrected the Solanum and Final Battle NIS. I also noted that when we fight the rogue mages the Cat Mansion Dryads (except for Celia) Do not fall down and play dead like they did in the past. It appears that the problem may be related to Celia alone and only within an NIS. She functions in all cases very nicely as a cat mansion character, but within the Solanum NIS she must be a Standard Dryad. (I am assuming from this that there are either missing or different animations for a cat mansion dryad and a regular DS2 Dryad.) It would be interesting to see what would happen if only Celia where a standard character and the remainder of the dryads where cat mansion both in DS2 and BW. I am ready to take a party through DS2 again.

Hi Iryan
The last patch that only changes Celia back into a regular Dryad works great in both NIS sequences. So I believe the reason they fail is totally Cat Mansion Celia's fault, because when she is a standard character and all the other Dryads are cat mansion things are good and the NIS completes. Which dose not make much sense to me since the only difference is standard character Celia is standing up and cat mansion Celia is sitting down after falling. Could the falling down animation prevent her from talking to the leader? Or is the Great Leader angry with her for sitting in his presence and walks off prior to him talking to the player? Has to be something silly that hangs the NIS.

There's a new public alpha of DS2 Adepts. Requires either the full or lite resource packs as well.
(links above).
http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/DS2BW_Adepts_Logic_Alpha_1n.ds2res
http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/DS2BW_Adepts_Alpha_1n.txt

This version has (or should have) all skins/portraits changed to Cat Mansion versions. It also includes a few more weapons including 9 guns from the Countersiege source mod for DS1 by Iarus and WnxWanderer2k.

Aranna is a lot more dangerous place now as it's a lot easier to die (the amount characters can go below consciousness has been reduced) and certain monsters now have the same ability as the player to freeze, stun, petrify, silence or ignite you!

To balance this the new resurrect spells and scrolls can now be autocasted! You can now die in the comfort that you be speedily resurrected by your trusted team mates. Of course this feature is largely untested apart from the first part of Greilyn Island but there doesn't seem to be any issues arising from making the spells autocastable so I don't know why GPG didn't enable it. This feature only applies to the new resurrect spells (which can always be bought from Eirolan at a discount) and not the DS2 versions.

There is also a unlargely incomplete new region that it proposed to be a secret area in the finished mod. For anyone who wishes to check it out it can be reached via teleporter from Eirolan. There is also scope to add another secret region as well, any ideas welcomed.

#UPDATE. Above links have update with quick fix for guns' weapon damage and missing active icon and
incorrect equip requirements for many of the monster weapon specific drops.

Something I'm going to try to implement in DS2 Adepts (or at least a version of it) is to attempt to make the campaign a little less linear by allowing the player to explore all 3 chapters prior to gaining the four parts of Azunai Shield and entering the Agallan Peaks.

So once the player reaches Eirolan they'll gain access to Aman'lu and Kalrathia automatically through the town portal. I know the game automatically closes off and activates certain main quests once you reach the towns regardless of whether you completed the prior chapter or not. So theoretically you should be able to complete the 3rd Chapter and obtain the Aegis of Life and Aegis of Death before you get the other two (both found in the Second Chapter).

To prevent the player from totally skipping the other two chapters completely, a check could be added to the Azunite Ancestor's talk flick at the beginning of the Agallan Trial to look for the presence of all 4 Aegis. An appropriate conversation would also be needed. That should take care of the 2nd Chapter as well since the Aegis of Blindness is obtained at the very end of the Chapter at Castle Snowbrook.

Still the entire first chapter could still be skipped unless perhaps Dreven's medallion was a prerequisite of gaining entry to the Agallan Trial and some conversation changes made to convey to the player that it was an important quest item. Perhaps Celia reveals to you that the medallion was taken by a member of the resistance to Windstone Fortress. Vix could reinforce this when you hire him.

All of the above would only be possibly through the magic of the MonsterLevelAdjust Mod so that all mobs and bosses were at the player's level. Otherwise the player's party would have no (extremely minute as I know there would be some who would try) hope of skipping the predetermined linear campaign order of event and surviving. Unfortunately the present version of the MonsterLevelAdjust Mod doesn't alter the damage outputs of traps which I found out when I was making a hack for Kruglover recently (poor Taar was obliterated when hit by one in the Azunite Burial Chambers because she was 10 levels below the expected level of a party through that area). Maybe KillerGremal might be able to weave some more of his magic and solve this issue.

I realise that there'll be undoubtable many things that will need to be adjusted/balanced for this concept to work. However it would provide one way of easing one of the biggest complaints against the Dungeon Siege line of games, that of being completely linear. It may well turn out to be completely impossible to do or impractical or simply beyond my abilities to achieve.

Any comments, suggestions, criticisms, etc of this proposal?

Incidentally all of this came into my head when I was checking up a recently released game, Legends of Dawn, where one of the promoted features was that it was set in a huge world which the player could explore any way they want without the confines of a linear campaign. And of course the games Bethseba makes (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout and Fallout:New Vegas) are hugely popular thanks it part to being pretty much open from the start.

The changes I propose for DS2 won't come anywhere near those open worlds (because of the way the levels are constructed) but maybe will be a little more interesting to play without completely rebuilding it from scratch.

Sounds good! Less linear would make things more interesting.

That's true and the idea!

Have enabled the teleporter bypass so the player can now access Aman'lu and Kalrathia from Eirolan. Did the first primary quest in both towns with a pre-existing level 13 party and activated the prism of the elves on The Elen'lu Isles to put out the fires in Aman'lu and defeated the Ganth (through cowardly hit and run tactics) to save the water supply for Kalrathia without any major difficulties apart from a Mucrim Shocker Matriarch nearly wiping out my party with an ambush.

I saved up enough money to get a 5th slot and recruited Amren after finishing the first primary quest in Kalrathia and then recruited Finala once she was available. So these two have been recruited before Vix or Sartan. Their starting gear was unusable as it was way over levelled for them (as their levels adjusted to your party levels now). I know KillerGremal has made an equip_when_hired command that will automatically fit the right level gear on a newly hired party member but I've never got it working.

With both towns the NIS plays showing their plight and a primary quest is automatically completed and another one opened up once you talk to the town leader.

Quirks are that the portal back to Greilyn is already opened in Aman'lu and going through it plays the Valdis and Arch mage threatening Celeb'hel to reveal the location of the Aegis of Death. That needs to be fixed. Also I got the Soul Staff in Kalrathia but it's a level 34 item so is unequitable.

I'm now thinking of having the Aegis of Sight at the very end of chapter one and obtainable when the Trilisk is defeated. This would require just a minor adjustments to some flicks and conversations in Kalrathia to achieve.

Of course making the game more open like this does makes for some inconsistencies with the plot but I would think most players would already know the plot off by heart and if they're using a mod are looking for more interesting and diverse things to do in the game and so would excuse these inconsistencies.

Iryan,
A great Idea to have the game be non-linear or at least less linear. I do believe you are correct in assuming that most people who would use this or any other recent mod know the game by heart and see the map in their minds. It would be nice to jump to the end and play the game in reverse :). Love the ideas and will test them if and when I can. As for Taar dropping dead a lot I always thought that was designed into the game since she is not really a fighter and feels sorry for all the monsters and bad guys. Turn her loose by herself and it would not be dungeon siege but instead Dryads gardening and knitting hour.

The biggest inconsistency would be your hero desire to return home and normally having to transverse the entire first chapter to do so. Still this inconsistency exists in the DS2 plot anyway as Eirolan has a portal so why does the player has to travel all over Greilyn and the Azunite Desert in order to reach Aman'lu? Apart from the obvious that it's 1/3 of the game.

With me poor Taar is always last in line for getting gear so she normally has less health and armor than the others as I usually make Deru a nature mage and we know how selfish Deru is.

Hi Iryan,
I like the fact that you have opened the way to both Aman'lu and Kalrathia. So I took the teleporter from Eirulan to Aman'lu intending to take the portal back to Winstone Fortress and walk back to Eirulan. However after the Flick that normally plays when you get to Aman'lu I could not destroy the Crystal Shard Tower. I guess that it can only be broken after passing through Winstone Fortress. Not a problem really I just wanted to shoot the three headed Shard Creature in the butt. What would really be useful would be to bypass Siege of Greilyn Beach when in Mercenary level as one does in Veteran and Elite levels. For people who have played the game as many times as I have I almost do not wish to start a new mercenary level character because of the time it takes to get from Greilyn Beach to the prison in Eirulan. Yadehtegeis is looking good -- I wonder how many people have found the work shop? Has Kathy picked a location for the Coffee/magic shop yet? Instead of a secret room in my house how about a locked door that people must find a key for? Why because I would hide some useful items in the house that I would not like just anyone to find. If I had my way I would pull out Deru's Tongue or at least tape her mouth closed and I would give Taar a little more courage. Oh My is DS2 really a redo of the Wizard of OZ Taar = Lion, Deru = Tinman?

I can bypass Greilyn Beach if most players would like it so. Would definitely fix that first buggy Celia NIS.

Here's a Special Edition of the DS2 Adepts Alpha (imagine that an alpha getting a special edition) that unlocks the chapters so they can be complete (theoretically) in any order prior to the Agallan Trials.
It also eliminates the tutorial so you start off in Warden Celia's Jail and have the ring of submission equipped.
http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/DS2Adepts_SE.zip

Warning that this is mostly untested after from some technical testing to ensure the towns work fine and that the quest order should be right. What's completely untested is the check at the start of the Agallan Trials where you should have all 4 pieces of the Azunai shield to proceed.

Also not all conversations have been changed to make sense of the changes to the structure of the chapters.

As to feedback, I've only got this: I LOVE being able to skip the tutorial. ^^

I always hated it so it is super nice to skip ahead. For continuity purposes, I can be considered a "new" player as I have not advanced much into the story at all. For now, Deru and I are on a mission (I didn't like the cut of Lothar's jib) and I will be trying to do the chapters in order.

Woops found a critical error with the questbook in Kalrathia that requires an immediate quickfix.
http://www.siegetheday.org/~iryan/files/DS2BW_Adepts_Logic_Alpha_SE2.ds2res

Must have been asleep to miss this one.

@Iryan
I like the fact that you do not have to fight all the way to prison Did not get much farther than a jump to Aman'lu. Well look around next time I get a chance.

just my 2 cents. it seems implausible the dryads wud allow u to teleport anywhere on the mainland when u are their prisoner. so what i suggest is only allow teleporting to the other two towns only when u complete the burning of the four morden towers for the dryads. it shudnt take long and will only inconvenience the player for about half an hour completing this at most.

iirc, lots of open ended games also restrict players to a fixed linear path at the beginning of the game for a short while too.

thereafter, once u are no longer their prisoner and they no longer perceive u as a traitorous threat, they will allow u to teleport anywhere u want and get rid of that unglam green dog collar too. i dont think it looks fashionable running around aranna with a green dog collar...

tho as for implementing this, im not exactly sure how to do this or if it can be done. i dont know if activating certain teleporter locations can be done thru flick or skrit or whatever...

maybe the quest flicks for activating the desert of kaderak teleporter (after darthrul) could be examined to see how to activate a teleporter location via flick/skrit/whatever.

this open ended mod redesign for the quests and journeying is the best modding idea one could have for ds and it got my rusty ds modding gears spinning again. i will try to contribute ideas to plug gaps in the story redesign as they arise and if u'll have them of course keke~ lol :mrgreen:

skipping the tutorial has to be the best idea since the invention of ring of submissions (well maybe not, but could u imagine a real one used on prisoners?)... for people that have played ds2 a lot that feature would be nice... as for the map of the beach, I kind of liked the beach tutorial, but the issue I always had with it, everything you received was lost once in jail so wasn't worth doing, however I do think the beach would be nice to play maybe later on with a different set of monsters and maybe in reverse by moving the start point to the end hehe...
perhaps the game being more open goes away from the story a little, but im sure for testing ones skill in battle being able to teleport to castle valdis would be fun.

That's my aim as well as it's a little incredulous for the player to run around in Aman'lu and Kalrathia with a ring of submission on. Once it's off then it's a different story.

Any suggestions you or anyone else has are certainly welcome! Plot wise after the ring of submission is removed the player has the quest to cure the plague, which also conveniently makes them and their teammates immune to the soul shards. Maybe after recruiting Taar is the best place to open up the world.

For Chapters two and three there's sufficient reasons to continue down each branch once started. I'm at the Mines of Kaderak now in testing and all quests work perfectly well except that unique rewards like Soranith's rings and the spellbinder ring can't be equipped as they're still level 34-36 items and my party is only level 24 at the moment. I've made the Soul Staff a level 10 item so it can be equipped early enough to start the quest but left the Nexus Staff at it's default level as the player would probably be around that level anyhow after finishing the quest. Also Sanctuary Doors can't be opened though on the flip side my party is gaining the more powerful chants before the weaker ones as there's no level checks on them.

For Chapter One I think that the old man wizard has to give the player a massive hint and/or reason to continue down that path as once they find the dryad colony there's no obvious reason to continue as they can get home to Aman'lu simply by using a portal.

The main objective of this version is to verify that the checks at the beginning of the Agallan Trials work as intended. I did try hacks to achieve the same result but failed as there's a number of things needed to get there (the town fountain has to be activated and a key obtained to unlock it). Then the azunite ancestor has to be tested with both all relevant quests completed and with some not completed to see if he reacts the right way. So I decided to get there the hard way, which is also an opportunity to see how the mod plays with all of these changes.

Probably if these changes work the open campaign will become a feature of the complete mod as the player always has the option of playing it the way it was intended if they don't have or choose not to use the monster level adjustment mod.

Iryan,
I think you are correct in not opening up the world until after Taar is in the party or after the exile colony quest has been completed. That way the Dark Wizard could talk to them about the value of taking the normal route but tell the player they can also visit places via the teleporter system at their own risk or something like that. The tutorial section from the beach to the prison, I like dark elf's idea about being able to go there later in the game just because. I like what I have seen so far.