Magic items added in Treasure

[FrancoK]

Itemdata.lbx seems to be a mess. @Anthony presumably did all that was necessary. Did you (Anthony) test the book requirements, do they work as intended?

I never actually tested my mod, since I use a patch that removes book requirements for lairs, though the defense fix works. What I did was create a master list of what I thought each enchantment should require, and then overwrote the requirements for the item. I also put in a book requirement in the range 1-8 (1 for the first 5 commons, 2 for the next five, etc) for spell charges, since there's no way to support 'must know the spell being enchanted into the item').

As far as conservatism of mods goes, a conservative mod would allow finding items you can't craft in lairs, since in fact (because of bugged books) you could do so before. It would also allow finding powerful items, since again...

The only items that require impossible numbers of books are items with Merging, or items that have multiple traits that require large numbers of books (e.g. the Sword of Pendulum, which has Lightning (5 chaos), Vampiric (5 death), and Phantasmal (6 Sorcery). There's no really clear way of fixing that other than removing one or more traits from the item, though since it also costs 3700 it's unlikely to matter.

My 2 cents.

Book requirements.
If I need 5 death books to create an artifact with vampiric, finding one should require less, maybe 3. As a rule I would put 1/2 the books needed to create it, rounded up.
Removing all book request will be better served by an option as kyrub suggested.

Plate/chain fix.
The armors found in the lairs are 2 or 1 worse. Did your fix change it for the current objects or will it work if someone changes an object?

Merge fix
Since merge do not works, either remove it from the object (and the related book requirement) or change it with something else.

[Anthony]

Plate/chain fix.
The armors found in the lairs are 2 or 1 worse. Did your fix change it for the current objects or will it work if someone changes an object?

It changes the current object (probably only applies at game launch). I'd have to patch itemmake (assuming it's actually bugged in the first place) to work for someone changing an object.

Merge fix
Since merge do not works, either remove it from the object (and the related book requirement) or change it with something else.

I was just fixing numbers, not creating new items. There are multiple stupid items, such as all the ones with Chaos and Phantasmal (Phantasmal has absolutely no effect on a Chaos weapon; 5 weapons), or Chaos and +to hit (Chaos doesn't roll to hit; 2 weapons), or Power Drain (doesn't do anything; 12 weapons), or requires both Death and Life books (2 items) or requires more than 13 books (12 items).

[kyrub]

There are multiple stupid items, such as all the ones with Chaos and Phantasmal (Phantasmal has absolutely no effect on a Chaos weapon; 5 weapons), or Chaos and +to hit (Chaos doesn't roll to hit; 2 weapons), or Power Drain (doesn't do anything; 12 weapons), or requires both Death and Life books (2 items) or requires more than 13 books (12 items).

This is simply incredible amount. I'll look at Aureus' files, he had that fixed I believe. I would like to have a corrected ITEMDAT in next patch.


Interesting - I have searched in OSG and in the game manual and I cannot find any confirmation that spellbook check is required for items in the lairs. On page 419 the routine is mentioned with 50-100% cost, but no spellbooks, which is odd. Looking back at the code, the spellbook check IS necessary for the AIs who create items (uses the same routine). They have to check if the item can be created with their book setup. MAYBE they mixed it with the other usages of the routine.

These both things lead me slowly to the conclusion, that spellbook check on lair findings should be viewed as unintended, e.g. a bug. - Does anybody else know a passage in official documentation of the game claiming that spellbook checks are intended for the lair findings?

[FrancoK]

Plate/chain fix.
The armors found in the lairs are 2 or 1 worse. Did your fix change it for the current objects or will it work if someone changes an object?

It changes the current object (probably only applies at game launch). I'd have to patch itemmake (assuming it's actually bugged in the first place) to work for someone changing an object.

That would be great!

Merge fix
Since merge do not works, either remove it from the object (and the related book requirement) or change it with something else.

I was just fixing numbers, not creating new items. There are multiple stupid items, such as all the ones with Chaos and Phantasmal (Phantasmal has absolutely no effect on a Chaos weapon; 5 weapons), or Chaos and +to hit (Chaos doesn't roll to hit; 2 weapons), or Power Drain (doesn't do anything; 12 weapons), or requires both Death and Life books (2 items) or requires more than 13 books (12 items).

So, if we simply remove the effect in the objects:
- Merge
- Phantasmal in Chaos + Phantasmal
- + to hit in Chaos and + to hit
- Power Drain (bugged as Merge, I presume)

The two items with Death and Life books; could be they are reserved as a Merchant sell or Gift from gods, as ILSe supposed.

The issue with More than 13 books; if we use the suggested method: cut to 1/2 half of the required books to create an Artifact (rounded up) they should all disappear.

Interesting - I have searched in OSG and in the game manual and I cannot find any confirmation that spellbook check is required for items in the lairs. On page 419 the routine is mentioned with 50-100% cost, but no spellbooks, which is odd. Looking back at the code, the spellbook check IS necessary for the AIs who create items (uses the same routine). They have to check if the item can be created with their book setup. MAYBE they mixed it with the other usages of the routine.

These both things lead me slowly to the conclusion, that spellbook check on lair findings should be viewed as unintended, e.g. a bug. - Does anybody else know a passage in official documentation of the game claiming that spellbook checks are intended for the lair findings?

Yes, you are right, no spellbook check in the manual, but neither there is an explanation why AI cast a spell instead of another, nor a table explaining the percentage of Mithril veins or Gems and they are present.

I'll stay stick to your decision to make an option to use or not the check.

[Anthony]

More stuff: there are two swords with True Sight (not available on swords), 5 wands with Water Walking (not available on wands), one axe with spell charges (not available on axes). It's possible that it was actually intended that impossible items could be found in treasure, merchants, or god gifts, however, so I'm sort of inclined to leave most of them in and only fix the ones that are actually nonsensical (mostly the various chaos weapons). The other possibility is a complete revamp of magic items.

Side point: ideally, power drain could be fixed. What it's supposed to do is drain 2-20 mana from the target's pool (it should probably also drain shots from magical ranged attacks), it just doesn't work. Maybe have it call the mana leak routine 1-3 times, that's about equivalent to what it's supposed to do.

[kyrub]

What I totally missed, is the special flag removing some objects from the consideration. This is a gross mistake and it should be corrected as ILSE points out.

I checked again and I love Serena is wrong. He did read Insecticide code incorrectly, it clearly grants all special items (Helm of Trollish Might etc.). The only thing it does in surplus is that you can get special items even with case 1. So it actually gives you more special items than it should.

I'll stay stick to your decision to make an option to use or not the check.

Now, could you tell me, which other option should I drop to make space? And that is only the start of the problem. For those who use the "EB" fix for spellbooks, this allows AIs to incorrectly create items without spellbook requirements. This is not an easy fix.

[FrancoK]

More stuff: there are two swords with True Sight (not available on swords), 5 wands with Water Walking (not available on wands), one axe with spell charges (not available on axes). It's possible that it was actually intended that impossible items could be found in treasure, merchants, or god gifts, however, so I'm sort of inclined to leave most of them in and only fix the ones that are actually nonsensical (mostly the various chaos weapons).

Agree.

Side point: ideally, power drain could be fixed. What it's supposed to do is drain 2-20 mana from the target's pool (it should probably also drain shots from magical ranged attacks), it just doesn't work. Maybe have it call the mana leak routine 1-3 times, that's about equivalent to what it's supposed to do.

The idea is to fix what can be fixed and discard the impossible powers.

[FrancoK]

What I totally missed, is the special flag removing some objects from the consideration. This is a gross mistake and it should be corrected as ILSE points out.

I checked again and I love Serena is wrong. He did read Insecticide code incorrectly, it clearly grants all special items (Helm of Trollish Might etc.). The only thing it does in surplus is that you can get special items even with case 1. So it actually gives you more special items than it should.

If I understood correctly, special mean: "if it is a Gift from the gods, chose only a special (flag) object", for the rest all the object could be find in a lair or given by a merchant.

I'll stay stick to your decision to make an option to use or not the check.

Now, could you tell me, which other option should I drop to make space? And that is only the start of the problem. For those who use the "EB" fix for spellbooks, this allows AIs to incorrectly create items without spellbook requirements. This is not an easy fix.

No need to drop space.
Put the code to check books. If the player wants the option fine. if the player do not want it, change the IF test for books with NOPs.
If the player want it back, change the NOPs with the IF test for books back.

[Anthony]

If I understood correctly, special mean: "if it is a Gift from the gods, chose only a special (flag) object", for the rest all the object could be find in a lair or given by a merchant.

Special means "this item contains at least one effect that requires create artifact". Other than the AI casting enchant item vs create artifact, it shouldn't really do anything.