Androdion

Wait, so minisets are on different droplists? Noob learning. So taking the HE as an example, the vanilla full sets and the CM full sets are on the same droplist right? So these are all on the same pool (CM full sets are actually 7)? No wonder Hooyaah has trouble finding a complete set. Adornments of the Ancestors Celdrahil's Pandemonium Faladal's Blizzard Armaments of the Nine Hells Glimborin's Garments of Mutation Children of Asha Frozen Gems Lara's Glad Rags Mage of the Spectrum Range Array Ok, and these HE minisets are on a separate pool. Ashes of Perdition Garments of the Storms Velaria's Heirloom Vestments of Innocence Virgo's Revenge In comparison where are all class sets like the following, and with which do they clash? These are all vanilla. Black Death Bratgrimace's Legacy Kayser's Luck (Epic Office Quest) Kira's Protection Slagelamber's Relics And what about these? They are all CM all class sets: Crypt Raider's Artifacts Disciples of the Architect Equilibrium Eternal Return Flesh-Eaters' Implements Insignia Regis Remnants of Drizzt Smoke Without Fire Undead Legionaire's Armaments Tooth and Nail The Night and The Silent Water BerDaiPayn DisTrukXion ImMorTel KilthEmAl KlaAtuVerAtaNikTuh SinIthTer TomMarWolOryDel YerLuvVun I guess my point here is just how many drop lists are there and where do all of these fit in, and how?! I know these lists may seem a bit confusing but all of these can drop as set items for a HE, and I'm not even accounting for that 30% chance that it's for another class.

You already had a computer in 1977? Damn...

Oh take your time, we're not on a timetable here. I'm just insomniac again.

Ok people, two things. 1. I was testing one potential bug on CM 1.60/EE 2.1 with my Niob SW , so afterwards I took it for a spin around the Guardians. Since I had the Platinum monolith active it was a short run, which I repeated more than half a dozen times. I also took a stroll at the Orc Cave. The set drops that I got weren't all that different from the usual even with "IsUsableByHero = 1000", I got one to two pieces of five different SW sets and three or four all class set drops. I then, for kicks, picked up DARK's lv.200 SW and gave it 200 in EP to do another Guardian run. I got three set items, two for the SW class and one all class piece. Now I know I didn't make 100 runs so this isn't as specific as it should be, but if this is a tendency then even though the drop pool is reduced it's not as much as to have just specific-class set drops. All class sets are still very much present and in the way. Still I'd prefer if there was more testing, so Hooyaah if you'd be so kind. I guess that this could be tried and tested with the all class sets removed from the drop lists since there's still a lot of them. Between the Sigils, the jewellery sets and the weapon sets there are dozens of them. 2. Regarding the translation into Portuguese and adding support for another language as has been talked about, I randomly came across a file Flix posted with the entire English game texts of CM 1.50, which translates to around 56k lines of text in one txt file. So I spent some time researching enterprise grade translation software and I came across PROMT, which despite being (well) paid provides for a trial-run with the program running at its full capacity. So not only could I fully translate the 1.50 file but I did so with only a couple of clicks since the program basically gets pointed to the original file and creates a translated copy on the same directory, automatically. The Portuguese version of the dictionary is the Brazilian variant, and from what I could gather there's still a lot of work left to be done since, you know, syntax and all. But it's as good of a start as one can get. So if this translation is to be made all I need, for starters, is the equivalent for 1.60 of that text file. And probably a couple of months, ha ha... It might be necessary to redo the file for the "CM Patch Lite", but I'm not really aware of how that part works. I don't know if the game can use the existing locale file, even if there's more text in it than what the game uses.

Don't sweat it, I do it for the fun of it and to kill some time when I have it. Anyway, changed the value from 1000 to 1 and the old Gar attacked me for 2.8k, 3.5k, 6.3k, 9.1k and 15.9k at character level. This means that with 87% SB its most powerful attack should be enough to redline my 35k SW, or at the very least be around the danger zone. So it all seems to check. Did three runs against it and the only shift in the values was when the SB raised it one level above my toon, but still it was only a few hundreds more on each strike. Now multiply those number by 1000... No wonder I dropped dead so fast even when leeching 3.5%!

Apple IIc was released on the year of my birth, nuff said!

I'm going to edit that value tonight and do some LAN runs against the Gar'Colossus, I'll give some feedback afterwards. As always, thanks mate.

Hooyaah, would you be so kind as to test that "isusablebyhero" value at 1000? Since you have an edited balance.txt that already provides better drops and a fierce HE with a load of points in Enhanced Perception, maybe you could do some boss runs and see if the drops change in the way that we'd like it to? If you start getting a lot of all class set drops you'll know it's not getting the desired effect.

Actually Flix and I discussed that issue on the EE topic. I asked him if there was a chance to make those extra sets/uniques/legendaries be absent from the drop lists as to make the pool smaller, and thus increase the chance to have full set drops, and then have them become fixed drops as quest rewards. And as it turns out all one has to do is eliminate the new gear from drop.txt and add their IDs to quest.txt as for them to drop as quest rewards. So what you're saying goes pretty much in line with that explanation he gave me. He mentioned that there's only the possibility to make a specific item drop as a quest reward, it's not possible to add a pool to randomise from. So you need to have that particular item as a reward for that particular quest, you can't make the quest reward a random legendary or set piece from a specific pool of items. Incidentally he already has made some items available through quest rewards in EE 2.1 like you say. Legendary relics in particular drop from all four elemental lords. As for your last line, to make them available via shared chests, it should also be an easy feat. If you keep the blueprint.txt with all the added gear but remove those items' IDs from the droplists then they won't drop, but when you place them in a shared chest their IDs will be present and trigger so they become usable. They just won't drop in-game. Think of them like the unlockable items on the Wiki. Somebody do correct me if I'm wrong here. So the community must speak up on the matter of the community-made content, I guess that's a given. To keep it or not to keep it, and how to keep it. I have my personal preference but I don't mind any of the alternatives, as long as it's (mostly) consensual. PS: On a side-note, I know there's a line in balance.txt that regulates the chance for runes to drop for the class you're currently playing with, and that you can change that line in order for them to drop only for your current toon (runeisforhero = 100 if memory serves). So my question is if there's any way to regulate the chance for set items to drop in the same way, less random between classes and more specifically to the class that's being played? That would probably be an interesting solution for the issue Hooyaah describes, unless mini-sets are accounted as being for all classes, which in turn would make such a change impractical anyway.

Should I be able to manually change this? What's the txt file and is there just one instance for the CA or is there one for each enemy type?

When I created this topic I never intended it to be a chore on Flix's back, mind you. I'd be more than happy to do some/most/all of the work on my spare time if I had any idea on how to read and write code, as "simple" as this game's is. But unless we're talking about copy-pasting IDs and replacing specific parts and values of txt files on Notepad++ I can't be of much help. And even then I'd need some tutoring to be able to do it. I can't program quests, but I can be of help. Or at least try to be. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one in this situation of having the will to do more but not being able to do so. I think we can all agree that Flix has done more than his part over the years, the guy basically keeps making more and more and tries to keep the modding spirit alive. I reckon that it's hard to have a vision of something and then find that there are too many conflicts regarding that particular idea of how things should be. Finding the energy to press on in those situations is much harder than coding endlessly. With that being said I don't know for sure what Flix's intentions regarding such a project are specifically, but like good old inspector Finch I can guess. My guess is that he wants to pick up all the fixes and slap them against the original code without any of the compromises made over the years, making the game as vanilla as it can be but with the added fixes. Not cutting back on some things in order to have others, not removing things originally coded in favour of newly created ones, and making the game run as stable as it can be. I'd also guess that by trying to revert many added things more space would be freed at s2logic in order to put extra fixes that have been identified. But all of this is speculation, call it an educated guess if you will. Still, only the man himself can tell us what his intentions are, if he wants to. I think that the community also has a word in this so you boys and girls should start talking more. As for the technical aspect of extra modules I fully agree with you. That's why I cautiously grouped community-made quests and bosses on one hand (because many bosses have proper quest flags) and community-made gear on the other. As far as I can tell and from what I could understand over the years the basis for a piece of equipment is in blueprint.txt, which creates an ID and properties for that item which then can be "summoned" in-game via a drop list or as a quest reward. Assuming that none of the newly created gear would be a fixed drop, and that the CM 1.60 blueprint.txt is kept on the lite version, then all you should need on the gear module is an amended version of drop.txt for the gear to drop. You'd also need the 1.60 version of creatures.txt for the bosses IDs I believe, and then an amended quest.txt on the optional module for spawning them. So unless I'm reading this incredibly wrong wouldn't having those two separate modules be as easy as keeping the 1.60 version of blueprint.txt and creatures.txt on the lite version and then activating just quest.txt and drop.txt separately for each of those two modules? If it is and they don't overlap then there shouldn't be any issues with it right? Separating the fixes from the content would be more a matter of analysis than coding I believe. We have changelogs for the several iterations of the CM Patch, we have the vanilla files and the 1.60 files and we know how to identify the changes made (well, some of us do), so all that's left is to do comparison checks and chop up code? Granted I'm making it sound too easy, but I don't think that it should be overly complex either. But again, noob here when it comes to coding, so this topic may be a good place to understand just how feasible things are. At the very least it should be a testimony of the "ifs and buts" if this matter resurfaces somewhere in the future.

Do you happen to have Sacred 2 Gold or FA+I&B on separate discs? Because if you have the later then that's a configuration that I'm pretty sure wasn't tested when the patch was made. Other than that do it like Desm says and don't use anything else on top of 1.60 apart from the Trimmed Elite Textures, it could potentially do more harm than good.

I think you need to take into account the fact that this "lite" version would have to be made with I&B in mind and not FA, so it'd only work on top of the last game version released by the original devs. It wouldn't make sense to do it in any other way. Most of these changes and radical nerfs were made when I&B was introduced so that's not an issue I reckon, otherwise we'd have to rebalance the game again and that's hardly the point. I think we can all agree that they did good in sticking rph to weapon-based attacks and CAs, as an example. GT+rph was total overkill! I have to say that part of me wishes to play the game without any added content as it was originally, with "only" the stability introduced by CM Patch 1.60 and all the work done prior to it. But I also feel that another part of me would feel sad for the lack of added sets and equipment, which I don't feel like should be a separate mod since they were originally designed with the CM spirit in mind. Hence why I mentioned the possibility of making it a base of fixes that could be updated "on-the-go" without having to change the additional community made content. It would be sad to see so many extra quests, bosses and equipment just fly out of the window, or have them negate new bug fix corrections without a complete overhaul of the entire patch. In my mind, and I'm not afraid of putting it out since it's only my own vision of it and not the community's, I see the CM Patch "lite" as the bug fix on top on I&B 2.65, and then a "CM Quests & Bosses", "CM Sets, Uniques & Legendaries" optional modules on top of that, for instance. I believe only quest.txt and drop.txt would "need" to be changed in each of those two modules as for them not to clash with each other, since the creatures.txt and blueprint.txt with all the additional information regarding all content could be kept intact on the bugfix base. Without the quest spawning and being outside of the drop lists I think they's just be sitting ducks in those two files and not cause any inconvenience, but the resident modders should know how to answer that question better than myself. It's just my personal idea of it though, so it's worth what it's worth. Oh yeah, that orthographic agreement is quite the thing. Without going into much detail let's just say that you're accurate in that it brings writing closer. I also agree that you notice it a lot in terms of spoken language, though I think that some syntax would suffer in adaptation between both variants of the language. I don't think that Ancaria has specific terms like freezer (geladeira - frigorífico) so we'd be in the clear for those specificities. But still I bet an arm and a leg that most ranting conversations in quests would have slightly different translations, if not for the syntax alone. A compromise is bound to be achieved though, since it's mostly a matter of keeping the content and working around the approach on the syntax. The naming scheme on the localisation should be fun to read though!

I remember you mentioning such a thing, maybe this is a good way for recruiting troops for that endeavour?! Anyway the idea of being modular was as simple as not removing the added content which took so much work from everyone who did it. It'd be more like optional community made content, a sort of walk into the history of the CM Patch since it always introduced new content. I was reading the page on the Wiki and adding new stuff was always part of the spirit. Thus making "bug fixes alone + optional added content" was more in line with keeping the best of both worlds. Granted, I realize that if there are no new fixes introduced splitting the atom only to use its two parts seems like a waste of energy, but if there is space to press new fixes into the "lite" version then it would make sense to have the extra content as an optional module, since the main module (bug fixes, optimisations) could be changed furthermore without having to alter the rest of the pool of items made over the years. I don't know if that makes that much sense, or if there are still that many things to debug/optimise, but it's an interesting way to keep the work of so many people over nearly a decade still available while keeping the patch up-to-date. I'd very much prefer a CM 1.61/1.62 progression with the extra content on the side than a complete overhaul into 1.70/1.80. Vagner mentioned translating the game into Portuguese some time ago, and I admitted that it would be a daunting task to do so. But don't mind me asking, is there any work yet to be done in localisations? Just to be sure, just how much text is there to be translated? I'd probably be able to translate it and put into syntax, but then there's the question of PT-PT vs PT-BR. I know Vagner gets me.

Crickey, no wonder I dropped dead so fast! Still, if that's a CM 1.60 issue how come it's so much more noticeable on EE 2.1? Is it the added difficulty and its curve reaching Niob? Since I'm mentioning balancing in EE 2.1, you might want to check the Elite Temple Guardian traps. In short they redlined that same SW in Platinum, and after loosing my SB in Niob I went to the Great Machine via LAN and at character level they did so even more. In Platinum I was left with 20% or so of my total HP, but in Niob it was more like 5%. I reckon that had I tried it with the 87% SB I had before it'd kill me on the spot. Sure, it's easy to avoid them but you can accidentally walk over one and it'll be a one-hit death. I don't even have the guts to try facing the Abishai as it is, he has four different traps and is as tough as nails so I suppose he'll be next to impossible to beat if you accidentally step on one of his traps?! It might be so.

I know it's a total clickbait title but I actually want to discuss something important. And everyone knows that Ancaria was always great anyway. Over the course of time and different iterations of community made patches and mods there has been a lot of content added to the vanilla version of the game, and this is something that hasn't been consensual as far as I can tell. No one questions the ability for CM 1.60 to make the game stable, so all the added content that comes with it is to be endured in order to fully enjoy the game in its full splendor. And yet there are always folks that think that vanilla it should be. Now with that in mind there is one thing that's been talked about over the course of time, which is to make more standardized CM version. As daunting of a task as that may seem at first the question I ask is this, is it really a necessity or just something for a selected few who complain about no vanilla no game?! That's my first point so I'll keep the rest of the conversation below. Now, we all know how easy it is to mod this game, just grab GSME and enable the module you want to load on top of the game. You want added content? Load the module with "cm items", which would need what, an already existing blueprint and drop.txt files? Come to think of it it shouldn't really be that difficult to make a "vanilla cm patch" with optional modules to be added like any other mod with extra items and stuff. Now, I'm not talking about eliminating restored content but making newly created content an optional module. It's pretty much incredible just how much variety CM 1.60 and even EE 2.1 bring to the game in terms of enemy skins and weapons, as well as rng loot skins. The point I'm trying to make is that those things should stay, if they're in the game files anyway why shouldn't they? The only thing that they add is a greater visual variety in the game, they don't add more items to drop pools. Now the big question is this, do you, the community, feel like this is an endeavour worth taking? Making a CM Patch that has all vanilla plus only restored content, with the option to side-load all the extra content created by the community? What do you all think abou this? We have the tools, I know there's will out there. But how about it being something people actually want? And that my friends, is the million dollar question. Thanks for reading and I hope that we can discuss this.

Hey Flix. A word on the Gar'Colossus if you will. I just had my SW die to it in Niob with a 22 level difference, so nearly 90% of SB out of the window. Sure I'm banging my head against the wall, but more than that I'm curious as to how the hell it killed me since I was hitting him with Frenzied Rampage with 3,5%LL! How come it just started throwing fists at me (that jab jab jab CA it does) in the middle of it and my toon dropped dead in two seconds? How is it that I can easily kill Bloodclaw, which is a tough mini-boss and hits hard enough, and then a simple attack from the Gar'Colossus while I'm leeching for 3,5% (I can't stress that enough) is enough to kill me just like that? If I have 35k HP at level 138, over 1,6k/sec regen and I'm leaching a monster with around 1 million HP for 3,5% per hit when I'm casting Frenzied Rampage at well over 150% speed, and that freaking thing still kills me, don't you think that "jab jab jab" might be a bit unbalanced?! I just can't understand the numbers here. Unless I'm mistaken just about any toon would die being hit by that attack. Is that on purpose? PS: On a completely unrelated note, one-handed yellow lightsabers spawn from a few specific quests like Manners Maketh Kobold, The Dream Vampire and a few more. But they all suck! I'm not sure if this is a problem prior to EE 2.1, but the fact is that those weapons always spawn with bonuses to different classes on the same item. Like one bonus to a Dryad and one to a Seraphim, stuff like that. So they're pretty much unusable. Yellow two-handed lightsabers drop here and there and they're totally fine in terms of bonuses, but the one-handed ones never drop during the game, and when they drop on those specific quests you can forget about using them. I've played through all difficulty levels and spent over three and a half days of game time, did all of Tyr Lysia and was half-way through Artamark in Niob doing every single quest. So far I can say that I haven't noticed any issues with EE 2.1 other than the few specific things I've been posting about, though I didn't make a full run on all quests in the game.

You'll be fine, Tyr Lysia and Artamark aren't that difficult in Niob so you've got a lot of ground to cover. Just don't exaggerate on the T-Mutants and Spiders. PS: Spoke too soon I guess, and given that this is the topic for banging your head against the wall for loosing your entire SB then I have to say that now it's my turn... Just lost 87% of SB in Niob after three and a half days of game time. To what you ask? To some of the toughest meanest bosses in Ancaria? No, to the freakin' Gar'Colossus! How I just died to that with 3,5%LL with a lv.90 Killing Spree/Rousing Command combo active while casting Frenzied Rampage is utterly beyond me. I mean, I'm leaching for 3,5%(!) at over 150% in speed and that thing kills me in two seconds? Oh come on... Now Niobium is total crap as enemies are at character level. If I was already killing them well enough with them being 22 levels above my toon now it's like I don't even care if they hit me or not. Sheesh, I may retire this SW entirely because of that. It's just a complete and total drag right now. Oh the bile, the bile...

You can make the game run on Windows 7 without any issues, I have Win 7 x64 and it works just fine. Most issues arise with Win 10 users, though even then there are many users here able to run the game on that OS. As for the LAN co-op you can totally use it if you can find a third-party program that works well with the game. People used Hamachi but I've read reports of it malfunctioning, then Tungle but the app was discontinued, now I don't know what people use. There have been a few topics here about it but I don't think that a definitive conclusion has been reached about it.

Wise move, though that comment I made wasn't meant to sound as snappy as it probably did. I just so happened to get the same toon killed by both Narmul and the Abishai! Poor DM bargainer, though in all honesty he wasn't properly built for those fights, ha ha. Glad you're still having fun with it. I haven't played in a few days but I have been playing with my SW in Niob, doing all quests in each area and reaping all the XP I can get my hands on. I can say that I managed to climb some 8-9 levels in Niob, starting at lv.122, just by doing the Tyr Lysia region. XP rewards for quests in Niob with EE 2.1 do make a ton of difference, and I'm glad they do because I can actually feel progression instead of just slowly creeping up one level every other day. I can climb one, maybe two, levels while questing and killing mobs so it's all fun. And I'm starting to complete some sets so better still. But, and there's always a but, I can already notice a huge difference in damage dealt by mobs between the first two areas. I can anticipate that the longer I travel the more this feeling will reappear... Niob really is a whole different level. PS: On an interesting note, if you're playing with EE 2.1 and you're thinking about rushing through Platinum do be careful. At lv.122 with a SB making mobs lv.141 those Elite temple guardians on the Great Machine managed to redline me with their traps. And I mean each and every time! I then tried to understand just how much damage they were doing with them and it was "just" the tiny amount of 27k! Boy I'm glad that I have Constitution mastered and a really high Grim Resilience, but still at around 34k worth of HP getting trapped for 27k felt almost like a minor stroke. I don't even want to know how much they'll do in Niob when I get there... FYI, I didn't have the courage to try the Abishai of "look at how many different traps I can lay, oh they're four" Dissension. No way!

I don't think that any of the games that I've played on my old Master System can count as RPG, I think the one that could get closer to having RPG-like elements would be Alex Kid in Miracle World. It was a fun 2D platformer with some awkward graphics and antics but it came bundled with the console, so I learned to love it and had a blast finding all the secrets all by myself. But yeah, now that I really think of it I suppose it doesn't count so I'd have to go with Final Fantasy VII on PC. Running around with Cloud, Barret and Tifa, trying to kill Ultima Weapons and finding all the best summons possible. I was never able to get the best out of the game but I was able to finish it even without Quadra Magic and KOTR, so I was perseverant ha ha. I'm having a total blank of to what ARPG I played first though... I was mainly into FPS and RTS games with the occasional dash into third person hack'n'slash games. To this day I still adore the Legacy of Kain series and its incredible story. So first ARPG then, I don't really know for sure but maybe Dungeon Siege 2?! Damn did I play that game a lot! Finished the game on Veteran with maxed out toons, twice. I think one of those two included the Broken World expansion so I would just do game->expansion on all difficulties until I had all of them maxed out, all quests made and all running jokes memorised. Does anyone remember that "Bruno!!!" joke from one of the guys at the enemy camp in the desert?! Man I need to find a video of that conversation. Oh boy, there's a whole playthrough of that sidequest with the entire conversation! It's hilarious!

That must be his ubber twinked elf with 600+ in each skill.

Why do I keep calling the ice phoenix "Narnuil" when it's "Narmul"?!

If you're using Superspawn I believe those spots are more than enough to get those levels to Pyro Focus Mastery. I mean, the canyons alone can grant what, a million XP?! So you went after Narnuil thinking it would be easy? Oh mate, it is not in the slightest bit! First you need to destroy the four (are there four really?!) crystal formations that feed it, and only then should you procede into damaging it directly. All of this while averting that icy Dragon strike and its icy meteor shower, both of which are absolutely deadly! The trick is to keep moving around, time those two attacks and then start dropping all you've got on that beast. Rinse and repeat. It's not easy and if you make a wrong movement during one of those deadly attacks you're in the Dead Zone. But it's possible to kill Narnuil, you just can't stay in the same place for too long. The Blood Forest had a lot of XP to grind, a huge (yet convoluted) main quest, and deadly enemies abound. Be wary of the red eyes more so than the blue ones. Sure, the blue ones already hit for LL, but the red ones?! Sheesh... Even my BFG seraphim had a few redlines with those... They're mostly in the northern part of that region though, mainly after that field of construct soldiers. Add to that those elite Harbingers of Death that spawn a ton of smaller imps and you're in trouble really fast! And if not for anything else, do beware of the Abishai. The trick is pretty much the same as with Narnuil, you need to keep moving around, except that where Narnuil drops Area of Effect attacks the Abishai drops traps. You know how the elite Temple Guardians in the Wasteland drop deadly traps? It's worse. Plus he has an aura of LL as well, you'll see it as a red cloud around it, so stay as far away as you can then time the traps and keep moving around. Drop everything you have in between, but like with Narnuil don't get greedy as one wrong move and you'll find your HP going "bam bam, bum" just like that. And of course, having fun is paramount!

It worked, he's safe now.