(January 12th, 2016, 05:23)Tiltowait Wrote: Well, if someone needs to run ITEMMAKE.EXE and create some new items, then I volunteer. There are tons of useless high-level items that will never be encountered due to ludicrous spellbook restrictions, and I identify this as a problem that needs to be fixed. Lots of useful low-level items can be created.
Well, I think that is also somewhat of a "modlike" change but it definitely is needed, default items are horrible. Not only are they poorly distributed by cost, but on top of it, many contain 2-3 redundant powers like illusion with lightning and doom. Go ahead and make one, I'll add it to the release (we might want to keep it in the optional folder, though)
I would like to point out however, that contrary to what Kryub posted in one of the old topics I read about it, he did disable the spellbook requirements on treasure and I did leave it that way. Spellbooks only matter now if Create artifact or Enchant item is cast to get the item (which, I think, was the intended behavior, but both generated the item from the same procedure and it checked for books even if the parameter was "treasure" and not "artifact" because, well, they most likely forgot about adding an exception.)
Also, map generation does not even look at the items available, it merely sets the "item" slot to "this contains an item of value X", the item is chosen when the dungeon is cleared. If no valid item is found, you still get an item but it will be random generated (and generally horrible crap like "mace of resistance" or "sword of spellcasting +10". So a new item set won't make more items appear, but it will make what appears better for sure!
One more thing to mention, the default was X was capped at 3000, but in 1.50 it is capped at ~6000 so (if enough monsters allow for such a crazy valuable item, which is quite rare) most items can now be found.
I have a fixed item list somewhere -- it has the correct book requirements and gives the correct defense bonus for chain and plate. I did add an (incorrect, but hard to do right) spellbook requirement for spell charges.
I thought one of the big problems was that the game says, 'you won a battle of 400 treasure points, let's see what's out there' and if it fails to find a suitably low-powered artifact then you get the crap. I just finished a game where I got tons of mana and gold out of ruins and they were about this price. Barely any artifacts, and when I did start getting them they were the more expensive ones with more abilities.
I also think it would be clever and not a mod to make magic shields carry the 'large shield' attribute.
I suppose step 1 of this process is to get all the items into an Excel spreadsheet. Has anyone done that already? If not, maybe Excel can be coaxed into importing the table data from the wiki.
What is the top range of artifact value that can be called for by the game?
Would it be possible to have spells check treasure points instead of just get a random rarity? It's sort of an issue that you can get a 6,000 research cost for under a thousand treasure points.
The combination of flyers refusing to engage ground troops and auto-combat causing my troops to wander aimlessly for lack of a target is incredibly annoying. Now I have to hold down space for 30 seconds to end a battle. If I can't convince you to roll back the flyer behavior (please, please) can you at least revert the auto-combat behavior? Also, what happened to the 25-turn combats? Why did that get reverted?
(January 12th, 2016, 23:14)spottedshroom Wrote: The combination of flyers refusing to engage ground troops and auto-combat causing my troops to wander aimlessly for lack of a target is incredibly annoying. Now I have to hold down space for 30 seconds to end a battle. If I can't convince you to roll back the flyer behavior (please, please) can you at least revert the auto-combat behavior? Also, what happened to the 25-turn combats? Why did that get reverted?
The 25 turn combats was a Caster of Magic feature. It's a mod so it's in the optional files, it didn't get into the mandatory files.
I did not change anything specifically in auto combat. Auto combat just means "let the AI play instead of me" so any AI change automatically is part of it. I don't think holding down the D button for 25 or 50 turns is that bad, and this situation isn't common, not any more so than any other reason when holding the D button until the turns run out is necessary.
However, if it really annoys you this much, there is (I think only in the CoM archive at the moment) a reverse.exe file which turns a patch file into an equivalent "unpatch" file. You can then apply that to remove the effect of patch files, although I can't guarantee it is safe for any patch file (dependencies and interaction of changes can be a problem especially on core AI code)
Quote:Would it be possible to have spells check treasure points instead of just get a random rarity? It's sort of an issue that you can get a 6,000 research cost for under a thousand treasure points.
It does and this is already included.
I believe I set these prices, not entirely sure (I'm sure they are this for CoM but might be closer to original for 1.50, you can check the patch file yourself it should tell you the new formulas) :
Common = 150
Uncommon = 600
Rare = 1350
Very Rare = 2500
Default was 50/200/450/800 but it was able to ignore the costs.
Quote:I also think it would be clever and not a mod to make magic shields carry the 'large shield' attribute.
I'm pretty sure they already do that. Even the wiki says so and I definitely have seen the ability on my heroes.
Quote:What is the top range of artifact value that can be called for by the game?
Right now it's 6000 mana, a little bit over that, like ~6080 in treasure. It's rare to have a node with that much treasure, but possible.
Create Artifact by the AI is 2250-4500 if I remember right. Enchant Item is I think 500-1000.
Merchant and Gift of Gods is unlimited.
I recommend keeping most items in the 0-5000 range, with a few, like 10 or so, over 5000.
Quote:I suppose step 1 of this process is to get all the items into an Excel spreadsheet. Has anyone done that already? If not, maybe Excel can be coaxed into importing the table data from the wiki.
You can use the tweaker to look at the item data table in a spreadsheet format in the "tables" menu.
Possible new bug: when attempting to cast Mass Healing in a lair combat against (the few remains of) four Death Knights and some Night Stalkers, I get the error "That combat enchantment is already in effect." Combatants are Torin, Malleus, and Shuri, and the only actual enchantment up is True Light.