LoC Ragnarok / Atlantis development

[sauruz]

What do you mean by teleport map ? is that when , in the editor, we place the zones teleporter in the new areas that werent in vanilla ? like in custom dungeons we place in helos or in sparta zone? for exemple


In my opinion , i didnt download the new update, i will be waiting for the official release, but from what i saw in videos, the new shadder is horrible, monster have turned into red dots on the screen, maybe im to used how it looked like since 2006, i dont know, but i feel the devs went bit to much on the glow shaderring.

In Grim Dawn, while it have the same red shadder system, its way more lighter ,wich dont cause any visual impact than  the future 2.10 for TQ.

We shall see.

[Bumbleguppy]

The teleport map that I mean is the InGameUI teleport map file that determines the textures for the UI display when you click on a teleporter. The one that shows the zone you are in and lets you select a destination.

When I first fired it up, all you could see were the destinations and text lol. I imported the new version and just added the new zone file I made in Scandia, problem solved...the frame and map and everything are fine now.

I agree about the red shader, but I was just so relieved I could move my character at all it was a small thing to get bothered about. I'm glad that creating new updates to lure in quick sale console users didn't crash my mod.

Besides, even if I have every version of TQ installed, there's lots more money in the casual player market so I have no illusions that anything I have a problem with will ever make it to the devs. Business suits will determine the market impact long before any content creator ever knows it was brought up.

People complain the "devs" don't listen, but they aren't the ones making decisions. it's the business executives and managers. I remember from my time working in a software company. My manager, his manager made exactly zero decisions...it was a woman from "business" division. ANd there were some bad decisions lol.

So I either fix the problem in a mod (A Few Bug Fixes for example) or I get used to it.

Is it just me or is it harder to click the inventory close buttons now? It just may be my diminishing coordination.

[sauruz]

Yhea, you are right.


You are not the only one, ive read about some problems around the ingame buttons on steam foruns. It can be a conflict with the new buttons hud for the consoles i dont know.

From what i saw in consoles there is a duplicate button that should be removed , maybe its that.

Edit: Glad to read theres no breaking wall in modding with 2.10, like it was with Atlantis release.

[lixiss]

People complain the "devs" don't listen, but they aren't the ones making decisions. it's the business executives and managers. I remember from my time working in a software company. My manager, his manager made exactly zero decisions...it was a woman from "business" division. ANd there were some bad decisions lol.

I'm might agree partially, but what's happened with 2.9 for modders? Game stop write logs, and it stop to write responses on console commands. Half year ago i'm used 2.8 for testing, 2.9 for something when i'm not need logs (but want not buggy effects). But... there is pure degradation and/or hostile action against modders. How you might get know what files/db records at least readed and not hit in hard errors?

In my taste, some genuine man, was think what release version should not report errors like about attempt to equipment non existing items by monsters and NPCs (this is was forever for any version of TQ). And instead of fixing 200-300 errors in TQAE (half of them just dead references and fix = remove) - they just disable logs comletely.

This kind changes can't be argued/can't be understandable under any case. I'm think about almost year, and still can't agree. TQ already have poor modding tools, and adding another layer of complexity - this is hostile action against modding community regardless from source (managers, money or "devs").

[Bumbleguppy]

I strongly agree with the lack of logs. I remember after Anniversary came out and I could hit the "~" And see the whole battle log just scroll beautifully up the screen, it brought a tear to a modders eye. Why can't I have a command to toggle that log? I know it exists as I have used it before.

EDIT: Also, I felt the need to increase the brightness and saturation on the textures of my summons. Maybe just my eyes today, but they seemed darker? I dunno, anyway, it's done.

[lixiss]

EDIT: Also, I felt the need to increase the brightness and saturation on the textures of my summons. Maybe just my eyes today, but they seemed darker? I dunno, anyway, it's done.

When i was young I work with CRTs where black background was nice. Nowadays, i'm switch to browser often, and i'm can't ensure what there is black themes are in use by web sites. I'm adapt. I'm use only white themes (to avoid switch whole black-to-white screens and back). So even just now if i can switch to black and many webs know about - i'm so addicted - what i'm can't see on black/gray themed apps now. They looks horrible for me. Dealing with white monitor is easy - it should be comfortable to use in full darkness, and at daytime it also should not be too dark. This is my own way for any kind of monitor. I mean for working hour over hour. Games same thing, sometimes there is has sense to change profile, but mine personal requirements so low, what there is not important. (However for DAO i'm adjust my personal profile to more intensive).

But generally... earlier days, usual grass was much greener. That doesn't mean what there is all ok in TQ, but this is also a factor.

PS: Light, textures - is not easy thing. Actually, light - is mod stopper. Good mods never out for NWN2 and DAO just because first have too complex terrain system, while second requires professional 3d/light designer. Otherwise both looks worse than NWN1 module built from standard resources. Colors, lighting, etc are depends on many things, including very subjective expression. When first "ray-tracing" with photo quality attempts had been shown by nvidia - 50/50 peoples forked: one see too many too dark areas, others see pure improvement... actually third category did not found any important difference. So lighting algorithms / shaders / calculations (like naively-linear or non-naive but fair) - most of time give worse result than lovely adjusted light conditions and on top of what gamma/whatever involved. So, generally, you might compare DX9/11 and if you did not see big differences... then probably you too old and now can master textures much better than before.

[Bumbleguppy]

Oh man, I haven't thought about NWN1 in a long time. Many good people on my favorite server...good times. I always ran a Half-Orc Dragonkin Bard/Fighter lol

Suddenly none of my Dark Obelisks were summoning minions. Tested a dozen solutions, the one that worked was changing the summon skill template to Skill_SpawnPet, evidentlly Skill_SpawnPetMonster template is untrustworthy.

EDIT: To be fair, I am only summoning a monster that dies instantly to spawn a proxy...not an actual monster. Maybe the game engine doesn't like that.

[Bumbleguppy]

Restore Monster Lure to Hunting. Gave it pierce/bleeding retaliation passive skill. Something to justify adding points to the base skill.

Changed the Detonate skill and patterned it after Eruption. Interesting discovery, you know how the damage from Squall etc. has a "tic" over time when it applies the damage? The time between those "tics" is controlled in the ProjectileAreaOfEffect projectile template in the Projectile Config -> targetInterval where the integer value is in milliseconds. So a setting of 1000 applies the skill damage once every second. I used this to increase the rate of fire of the projectile fragments from the new Detonate skill.

[Bumbleguppy]

Spent last evening banging my head against my keyboard heartbroken becuase my new texture was simply not compiling properly. When I tried to open them in TextureViewer it just popped up with a Windows error code.

I redid the texture over and over thinking the file .TGA I was editing was corrupted, but nothing. In a frustrated rage I deleted the mesh and textures and fudged together something to approximate what I was trying to accomplish and gave up.

This morning I realized that my ArtManager was pointing to Steam for the Tools directory and that I had downloaded the new public beta.

I pointed my tools directory in ArtManger at GOG install and viola. My new textures complied flawlessly. Of course, after all these years I still can't duplicate the Spirit Pig/ Spectral Bat style texture/shader for anything else, it's just beyond my limited abilities to get it right. So I used a AdditiveScrollShader and called it good.

Word to the wise, copy and paste your existing TextureCompiler.exe somewhere safe for when this patch goes live and you can no longer add new textures to your mod.

If worse comes to worse, I will use the CD version's. You can't stop me NordicTHQ.

[sauruz]

Maybe its unsafe to kept modding during the publicbeta version, probably some fuctions dont work as indented as the release.  Its my opinion maybe im wrong.


What you wanted to do with the ghost pig texture/shadder ? Maybe i can help

[Bumbleguppy]

Well, I'm not going to hold my breath about the texture compiler suddenly working after the release, I've been burned before.

Well, I made a summon Cyclops for the Satyr mage. I wanted the same look as the spirit pig/ spectral bat but the textures are too complicated for me, I don't understand what's happening.

I understand the additive scroll shader a little enough to use them a little but the pig textures are mostly transparent and it's just too confusing for me. I've attempted to recreate that look where it looks like there are two pigs, one inside the other like the spirit pig for the Cyclops and the same color theme but it just is too confusing.

Using the additive scroll shader alone with a purple-ized Cyclops texture is still pretty good.

[sauruz]

I can give a try making the blue ghostly cyclops. I will let you know the how it looks in case of positive results.

[Bumbleguppy]

If you want to, but they only appear once a playthrough if at all...I usually take out the mages first lol

[Bumbleguppy]

Ugh, the kind of setbacks that happen unexpectedly modding TQ is staggering in retrospect. Just assuming a consistent functionality across the template system will blindside you every time. Too many times to list each different time when something that works in one context does not in another.

Today I was working on cleaning the database of all the directories and files for the Champion Ordnance. Removing all the armor and sets and their directories. Got everything situated and then tested, worked flawlessly, which is surprising after an overhaul of the file paths for merchant->recipe loot table->recipe->ordnance item.

I have added the "of the Tinkerer" as an affix when the artifact NPC spawns the ordnance amulet. Problem is, I discovered that the "of the Tinkerer" affix does not work with the Artifact Bonus Table, even when the item spawned is an amulet which actually can spawn with the affix in shops and treasure chests.

So I am assuming, since the "of the Tinkerer" functionality is not a setting or property of the affix template itself and is applied in the game engine, that it is looking for the "suffix" of an item having the "of the Tinkerer" in order to apply that functionality. Since the artifact bonus table is just an affix, it must be applying it to the item's "prefix" slot so the tinkerer affix doesn't work.

I am thinking about getting around this by spwning a scroll from the artifact creator, using the scroll spawns a container/invisible monster (easier) that then spawns the amulet with prefix/affix so that it gets the "of the Tinkerer" as a suffix specifically. What a pain in the butt, a lot of work ahead of me to do it.

Shout out to the new TQVault I downloaded today, it actually works with my mod (practical considerations aside like the expanded player/storage stashes, no surprise there lol) as it was useful to see the affixes after the item spawned.

EDIT: Just remembered all scroll skills must be added to the player Scroll Skill Tree, and there isn't nearly enough of them for every class combination's ordnance spawn skill so that's out.

I was thinking of a complicated QUest system that would look for something in your inventory and then spawn the item, but it would take so long to develop just for the of the Tinkerer suffix to spawn, I am just scrapping the whole plan. So there will be no "of the Tinkerer" on Champion Ordnance.

[soa]

Ugh, the kind of setbacks that happen unexpectedly modding TQ is staggering in retrospect. Just assuming a consistent functionality across the template system will blindside you every time. Too many times to list each different time when something that works in one context does not in another.

Today I was working on cleaning the database of all the directories and files for the Champion Ordnance. Removing all the armor and sets and their directories. Got everything situated and then tested, worked flawlessly, which is surprising after an overhaul of the file paths for merchant->recipe loot table->recipe->ordnance item.

I have added the "of the Tinkerer" as an affix when the artifact NPC spawns the ordnance amulet. Problem is, I discovered that the "of the Tinkerer" affix does not work with the Artifact Bonus Table, even when the item spawned is an amulet which actually can spawn with the affix in shops and treasure chests.

So I am assuming, since the "of the Tinkerer" functionality is not a setting or property of the affix template itself and is applied in the game engine, that it is looking for the "suffix" of an item having the "of the Tinkerer" in order to apply that functionality. Since the artifact bonus table is just an affix, it must be applying it to the item's "prefix" slot so the tinkerer affix doesn't work.

I am thinking about getting around this by spwning a scroll from the artifact creator, using the scroll spawns a container/invisible monster (easier) that then spawns the amulet with prefix/affix so that it gets the "of the Tinkerer" as a suffix specifically. What a pain in the butt, a lot of work ahead of me to do it.

Shout out to the new TQVault I downloaded today, it actually works with my mod (practical considerations aside like the expanded player/storage stashes, no surprise there lol) as it was useful to see the affixes after the item spawned.

EDIT: Just remembered all scroll skills must be added to the player Scroll Skill Tree, and there isn't nearly enough of them for every class combination's ordnance spawn skill so that's out.

I was thinking of a complicated QUest system that would look for something in your inventory and then spawn the item, but it would take so long to develop just for the of the Tinkerer suffix to spawn, I am just scrapping the whole plan. So there will be no "of the Tinkerer" on Champion Ordnance.

I've been going through the same kind of issues during the last months.
Basically i was creating a way for the player to generate a random item by crafting.

I created a monster generator (summoned with a scroll skill), that allowed to create a few items, but that's limited because you don't have many skill slots left in the trees (though you can expand to 30 now).
Other than that, I think you need a quest. That's what I'm doing right now, but it's long and complicated.

It all comes down to the fact that :
- to add an affix to an item, you either need a loot table or the forge (Ragnarok)
- forge is limited by the fact you can't specify the exact item, only rarity and type. the template is also weird and not practical to use (no gold cost/reagents to upgrade, you can't really point to affix tables that correspond exactly to the item type)
- you can't put a loot table as a result of a crafting formula, so you end up with invisible monster generator/quest shenanigans

For your problem, maybe you could customize a new blacksmith NPC (item upgrader template from Ragnarok)
By setting your special amulets to "Common" rarity (which doesn't exist in vanilla), and setting the blacksmith to only accept "Common amulets", pointing to a Tinkerer suffix loottable.
It's a bit convoluted but could work, maybe.
If you specify no UnlockToken, and no UpgradedToken in his dbr, maybe the guy will be available permanently (otherwise you'll need a quest for that).