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Another bug report: Shadow Warrior's Nether Allegiance. Once you finish a quest that has multiple NPCs following you, it makes the Spectral Soldiers disappear from the map (minimap, the green friendly arrows). They still follow you, but it breaks the leashing script, which is supposed to teleport them to you if they get too far. When you enter a cave, they will never appear until you resummon them and have to do it for every location swap, but the script remains broken until you quit the game. Does not happen in quests where there is only one NPC following you. The behavior returns to normal when you quit out of the game and load again. Seems to be something iffy in the NPC dismiss script when the quest finishes that has this side effect on the Nether Allegiance summons. EDIT: Was Maldrion's Necklace unique amulet changed in any way? It just dropped for me and it looks like this: The wiki claims it's supposed to have a bonus to a single aspect, not all Combat Arts. Did I just get insanely lucky and discover the ultimate version of this amulet, or was this changed in some patch? Has anyone ever encountered this? http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred_2:Maldrion's_Necklace

The CA grunt, for the Shadow Warrior at least, is like a 0.5 second long, somewhat quiet *hhaggh* and occurs every single time you use a CA, no matter the voice line frequency setting, unlike all other combat voice lines that only trigger occasionally and on hit/getting hit or hitting/killing a specific enemy. If the CA execution grunts could somehow have their own category so they don't override anything else currently playing, it would be a very nice improvement overall. I usually play with character comments on "frequent", so that's why I noticed it. Currently, the only way to hear voice lines fully is to stop using CAs before they finish, so either just running around or left clicking. Although, I tried looking into the animation.txt and basic attacks too have a SHOUT in their definition, yet they do not interrupt voice lines, so I don't really know the exact behavior. EDIT: Also, additional point of reference: Spectral Hand for example does NOT interrupt voice lines as there is no grunt while performing it. So it is not a global thing with all Combat Arts.

A couple of new things: 1) Elite Brigand Leader's AI is buggy. He has both a bow and sword available. However, any time he pulls out a bow, he behaves like if he had a melee weapon. Meaning that instead of shooting you at range, he always runs into melee range and swaps to a sword mid-swing. After this happens, only then does he occasionally start to shoot you. Although making him shoot at all is extremely hard as 99% of the time, he just prefers chasing you with the sword after that first buggy attack. It's this guy: 2) Currently playing voice lines get cancelled when you use a Combat Art. They only continue playing when using basic attacks. Was that always the case? And if so, would it be possible to somehow prevent the game from interrupting voice lines at all? Would be great if they could continue playing normally, regardless of whether you are using a CA or basic attack. EDIT: Besides the general combat taunts and race specific ones (there is quite a lot of them), all the characters also have unique things to say at many moments in the campaign (both Light and Shadow) and you can easily skip them if you aren't careful in situations where a fight starts immediately after a conversation or such. It seems like the grunts the character makes during various CAs count as a voice line and cancel out the regular voice line already playing as only one can be playing at a time. But let me say again, I am not sure whether this is because of the PFP or it's how the game always was. Just something I noticed happening quite a lot, especially once you get your CA cooldowns very low.

Yes, it is very weird. It worked fine on my Windows XP PC, but ever since using Windows 7 and now 10, I've had this small problem happening to me. When I choose windowed in the graphics options, it behaves as it should, but really not worth playing in windowed mode for. EDIT: It seems to mostly be related to the "black fade in/out" effect that is supposed to happen once a loading starts. It doesn't work in fullscreen, which results in the broken transitions.

So, every time there is supposed to be a loading screen like when loading a game, entering a dungeon or teleporting for the duration of the loading, instead of showing a concept art with a gameplay tip, my screen just freezes. Once the loading is done, it just cuts instantly to the loaded area. Also affects the intro logos, where the first 2 can't be seen at all (only audio can be heard) and only at the Nvidia logo, the image slowly fades in from black instead of showing right away. When changing a graphics option like resolution, it refreshes, SHOWS a proper loading screen, but it remains on the screen for several seconds even after everything is running properly before disappearing. I can move my mouse, click on the menu options in the background (behind the loading screen), everything works, but the loading screen stays on the image about 7 seconds after the loading is done. This happens ONLY in fullscreen mode. The moment I switch to windowed, everything works fine and as it should. Any idea what might be causing this?

In Sacred 1 (at least the Gold version), the cap on read runes is 255 and every rune read gives a full level. The total cap of a CA was 255 from runes (you actually get a message that the CA is on a maximum level) + 255 from gear bonuses, so 510. There is no level where you start getting a penalty. No idea how it was in the original Sacred 1 (never played it). In Sacred 2, before Ice & Blood, it had the exact behavior you describe. You could read infinite (well, not infinite but insanely high number you could never reach) runes but would get less and less the more you read. You could just read several thousand Grand Invigoration runes but would reach a point where you would have to read 50 of them to get 0.1 of a level. With Ice & Blood, they just limited the max read runes to 200. The only way to go past that is with gear bonuses.

You are an outright LUA magician This should make it much easier on Flix. For reference, try running it on the vanilla surface.txt vs the one from PFP to see just how many surfaces had that flag added. But if Flix has a surface.txt from EE version on hand before the flag was slapped on everything, then your program will be a life saver. And the image for the program download mad me laugh out loud. LUA LUA LUA LUA LUA.

Oh, I didn't mean "fix" as in fix the way the game renders shadows. I mean fix as in just removing the flag for surfaces where it causes issues. I am not sure what the workaround you posted above does exactly, but the mention about "lower quality shadows" had me worried that it would lead to a needless quality loss.

Personally, I'd just start removing the flag from stuff where it's noticeable. So for now, base character and NPC models. There is no need to remove the flag from everything where it's been added, just stuff that causes visible issues.

Perhaps, going for lower shadow quality is optimal. What about this though? Wouldn't it be better to fix it instead of sacrificing shadow quality for it?

Keep in mind that the default gusts of wind occur no matter the weather type. Weather type 2 is the one to actually apply a wind weather effect to a sector. I just tried setting 2 weather types to 100 frequency for a sector and it always applies only one. Tried 3 and 7 (rain and snow), and it always applied only rain. Between 2 and 7 (wind and snow) it always seems to randomly pick one (if both have frequency at 100). The snow might seem like it's changing, but it's just how the weather effect looks by default. It constantly transitions between a high/low amount of snowflakes.

It does seem to mostly be visible on the base character models. The effect is much less pronounced when it comes to armor pieces. So just removing it from the base character models should be sufficient for now, as an immediate fix. I'd leave the rest, like the NPCs, for later. As Flix said: Originally I applied this flag selectively in earlier EE releases whenever I noticed how this would fix things like equipment appearing transparent when viewed from one side.

I do. Happens even with the vanilla s2render.dll But it must have something to do with how textures react to light. Just compare the 2 screenshots side by side. In vanilla, everything is a bit more bright, compared to the PFP, which is slightly muted in comparison. From characters through ground to random objects, everything has a slightly different hue. Although it is probably a couple of seconds of time difference. I think the High Elf campaign starts at dawn so a couple of seconds of difference could be the cause of the slightly different hue. Ignore the above. EDIT: The good old brute force method revealed the culprit file. It's surface.txt in the client scripts. Upon restoring that one to the vanilla, it looks as it should. Scanning through the file indeed seems like it's related to texture properties and surface definitions. Comparing the 2 files shows that the vast majority of differences were done by adding additional surface flags to a ton of entries. In the vast majority of cases, the added surface flag is SURFACE_FLAG_DOUBLESIDED (almost all the changes are just adding this flag to a surface, compared to vanilla). Might be the cause of the issue. EDIT 2: Yes, that's it. Tried removing the DOUBLESIDED flag for the default High Elf surfaces and voila, it's back to looking as it should. It seems like this flag has been added to pretty much any surface that did not have it for some reason. The comparison software showed 10 261 differences, with probably 99% of them being the addition of this flag. Other than that, also spotted a very minor number of a couple of other flag edits/additions/deletions here and there (didn't seem relevant) and there are also 2 extra object definitions at the start in the PFP file compared to vanilla ("obj_d_s_b_lava" and "obj_d_s_b_mtllava"). But the problem is the DOUBLESIDED flag. I assume it affects how surfaces cast shadows or something, which causes the weird line effect in game. Was this file taken over from the CM Patch? Can't remember if it was happening there too.

I completely missed that. As I was just brute-forcing numbers everywhere, I just glanced over that. Most sectors seem to have between 1 and 3 occurrences and the frequency usually adds up to 100. Take 1,28,0 for example (the first multi-entry one). That I assume would mean that: 80% of the time, there will be no weather effect (frequency 80 for type 1) 15% of the time, it would be be wind with a density 30 (frequency 15 for type 2) 5% of the time, it would be wind with a density 60 (frequency 5 for type 2) So I think that doesn't mean that there can be multiple weather effects at the same time, but the game can ROLL for several effects at once, whenever it checks for the weather. I'd assume it first checks the lowest chance, then the one above it etc. And I wonder what would happen if you went over 100 total. Probably nothing, but haven't tried that yet. That could actually give much more flexibility when it comes to choosing a weather that I originally thought. This would allow to make rainy areas where the intensity and occurrence could vary every time you visit the area. Yeah, I was posing around for some screenshots recently, waiting for night to come and rain suddenly just started. So it is entirely possible that in a sector where it was raining, the game re-rolled it and resulted in a rain but with different intensity. But I can't really pinpoint how often or under what conditions the game rolls for the weather effect. It could be the hours parameter, but I still have no idea what it does. One theory could be, that the number is a time in milliseconds. That would make 16777215 result in roughly 4.6 hours, which COULD be the amount of game time (not real time) that the effect will last once it is rolled. After that period, the game re-rolls.

Thanks for looking into it. I noticed it too, but attributed it to the overall iffy shadow behavior in the game. Here is quick side by side for reference. As said above, NPCs are also affected: Vanilla: PFP:

Just tried and you are correct. I lumped the "shimmer" issue with the one you are describing under one, but that is obviously not the case. The "shimmer" I showed on the Shadow Warrior was 100% always happening. But the one with the lines is definitely caused by something in the PFP. Even without the PFP, you can still spot the effect happening above the cleavage area of the HE, but much, much less visible. Like 90% less. Some change in the PFP must have amplified this effect drastically. EDIT: The "under a light source at night" issue is yet another weird shadow thing that happens in vanilla too. Here is an example: And without helmet: For some reason, the shadows cast by the helmet, armor pieces or facial features like nose are extremely pixelated. These pixelated dynamic shadows also completely disappear, same as the shimmer effect I described above, when shadows are on medium quality or lower. However, it's not related to the original issue with the lines described above (which seems almost exclusive to the PFP), nor the shimmer effect in my previous screenshots. Just posting this here to show what I meant by the "under a light source at night".

It is the shadows, yes. But if I remember correctly, the game always did that. Here is an example from my Shadow Warrior, shadows set on Very High: Most noticeable on the face and under the shoulder plates. Generally whenever a light source is obstructed from above. Just wait for night, stand under a lantern or some other light source and zoom in on the face. The shadows keep shimmering nearly constantly. I am 99% sure this is not a PFP issue but an issue in the game itself about how it renders shadows. Because I remember noticing it on a High Elf even when I played just the base Sacred 2: Fallen Angel like 10 years ago. Putting shadows on medium mostly eliminates the shadow shimmer but the lines can still be visible sometimes. And you also lose out on the overall shadow quality. Your choice. Just compare the face between the screenshots. It happens on both Very High and High shadows settings. Only on medium and below does it go away. Probably an effect that was intended to make shadows look more realistic on obstructed objects, but did not turn out very well.

Thanks for the download and the script. This map is definitely better looking and easier to decipher. And the script will be of great help too. Input coordinates - returns which quadrant the sector is in Input quadrant coordinates from map - return the coordinates of the top left of the group of 4 sectors within a quadrant. Will make any potential weather experiments much easier

Could it have been from before Ice & Blood? I remember my High Elf from the base game who had like 600 GI runes read. I could still play her in Ice & Blood, but couldn't read any more runes because it would apply the new limit from the expansion and made me lose dozens of levels of GI instantly.

Went over the weapon CAs of the Shadow Warrior and added the relevant info. Adjusted the mod explanations (Envenom, Poisoning and Hurl) and listed the base attack rating bonus, weapon multiplier bonus, damage bonus and how they scale with levels. Also listed how the various damage mods increase these values.

Why not. I also noticed that some CAs on the wiki are missing some of the inner details, like attack rating bonus per level or damage bonus etc, while others have them. Could go over the weapon based CA's and add the info the the Stats Chart section, like it is on the Pelting Strikes page for example.

Reviving this as I've been wondering about it for a while now. The definitive answer to this is, that the damage is flat. So in case of FR, 2.8 + 1.4 Poison Damage per level, then multiplied by damage modifiers (Tactics, +damage% etc.). Tested by: 1) Picking the mod with Frenzied Rampage at level 8 - CA tooltip said 48 poison damage. 2) Equipping a flat damage ring. If the damage was % based, equipping a flat damage ring would also increase the poison damage. However, it stayed the same, even across different weapons, meaning it's a static damage bonus. All the confusion seems/seemed to stem from the wiki descriptions. As all of these mods have the same definitions in the spells.txt, (et_weapondamage_poison/fire/ice) they must then logically all behave the same. Yet there is still this description disparity on the wiki. where there are percentages for Demonic Blow and Frenzied Rampage. Current status of wiki descriptions for mods which add a bonus damage of a certain element: Ruthless Mutilation - wiki says "3 + 1.5 per CA level fire damage (+damage modifiers)" Mortifying Pillory - wiki says "6 + 2 per Combat Art level poison damage (+damage modifiers)" Demonic Blow - wiki says "4% + 1% per CA level" Frenzied Rampage - wiki says "2.8% + 1.4% per CA level" Spectral Hand - wiki says "4 + 1 per CA level, modified by Astral Lord Lore" the percentages should be removed for Demonic Blow and Frenzied Rampage and the info that damage modifiers work on it should be added. So for Frenzied Rampage specifically, you have a choice of 2+1 Life Leech Damage per level which only gets increased by Tactics Lore but is unresistable and heals you vs 2.8+1.4 poison damage per level which gets increased by Tactics Lore, % damage bonuses, % bonus poison damage and all other mods that work on normal damage but is if course resisted by enemy armor. The poison will also give your Frenzied Rampage an innate chance to cause poisoning (could be useful for a build with Damage Lore in it). So the poison mod will win out on raw damage and can be pumped much higher than the life leech but will be vastly worse against anything that has a high poison armor. The life leech will always be consistent, no matter the enemy. One of the hardest mod decisions in the game to be honest. The only exception here is Spectral Hand, which as a Hybrid CA, does not benefit from Tactics at all so the ice damage mod is only increased by Astral Lord Lore.

The numbers on Damage Lore always seemed pretty insane to me, but never forced myself try it out. Mostly because it only really becomes relevant at Mastery. It will definitely be my level 50 or 65 skill. Not much point in picking it before. But having DoTs that on every tick hit about 75% as hard as the hit that inflicted them does definitely sound tasty. Indeed. This affix alone is usually enough so you can almost entirely ignore the attack x defense calculation for a long time, as it just simply adds this % to your chance to hit. The scaling chance to reflect melee from the Gold mod will definitely provide a near immunity to melee on the higher levels. Most of the Buff mods in general, that provide a chance to reflect/block a source (spell, melee or projectile), will regularly give you 60-70% chance of doing so in the later stages once you've pumped the level high enough. That is the reason I wanted to avoid Revered Technology in the first place. Battle Stance blocks melee and Warding Energy Reflects projectiles and spells, resulting in almost an immunity to all sources of damage, on top of an extremely beefy shield. That is why I always ended up going with multiple buffs, due to most of them having scaling chances to greatly negate incoming damage from various channels. You don't need to have tens of thousands of HP when 65% of the attacks don't end up hitting you in the first place. That was my hope and also the reason for picking Toughness instead of, say, Spell Resistance. I like the synergy between Armor Lore and Toughness and the way Toughness stacks with other mitigation sources. 2 General Skills and a single aspect is a build I never tried seriously before. Also never played around with Master's Touch (always had it off), so it's finally a chance to also make a character using it. Once I get bored of my ranged tri-aspect Shadow Warrior. This will be the build I'll roll.

OK. I've tested the statue prolongation technique and it still works. Using a statue and then not dropping the buff using mentor pots still results in +100% as long as you keep the effect. Would the XP mods stack on top of that too? Mostly to just bask in the glory of how much of the map I've already explored. It was way better to look at without all the labels. World Objects hides it, yes, but having to constantly flip it on and off gets tedious after a while. The area names are not THAT bad, but the "Activated Resurrection Monolith" is egregiously long. Always obscures the surrounding area when moving around it and makes me not want to click them, honestly, because it will move the label to the area I am currently in

The idea behind the build is simple. I wanted to cram as much stuff as possible I haven't tried yet in Sacred 2 into a single build. So: 1) A build without Concentration. Never made one before and come to think of it, never really tried a single aspect build either. Finally gonna try Master's Touch too. Time to get out of my comfort zone of using multiple buffs on every single character I play. 2) Wanted to try out Damage Lore. This also made me plan for Dual Wield, as I want to have a Fire/Poison weapon and constantly apply the two DoTs. 3) Wanted to finally see how Enhanced Perception would perform at higher levels. Only tried it once shortly before. 4) I always sat on hundreds of Alchemy trophies without ever using a single one of them (besides the ones dependent on Warding Energy Lore). It's finally time to change that. Combining all the requirements above, that pretty much landed me in the single aspect build territory as there is simply not enough room for more. The idea would be squeezing maximum value out of a melee Exalted Warrior Seraphim and nothing else. But not really sure if it would be viable in Niobium. So just gonna throw this idea out there and hear what people think. Skills (not in pick order, mastery order in brackets): Exalted Warrior Focus (7) Combat Discipline Spell Resistance (6) Tactics Lore (2) Dual wield (9) Damage Lore (1) Armor Lore (3) Constitution (5) Toughness (8) Enhanced Perception (4) Alchemy (10) As far as stats go, it would most likely be a Vitality dump (due to missing the defenses from other buffs) sprinkled with some Stamina. Probably an 80/20 or 70/30 split. Scouting all the characters and options, EW Seraphim seemed the most viable. The other option that I thought about was Devout Guardian Temple Guardian, but he does not have access to Alchemy. My main concern here is: Are single aspect builds viable in Niobium? I have no experience with them so can't really judge it. Mostly in the defense department. I was thinking about more defensive skills, but wanted to use EP and Alchemy. If this was a standard build, I would just slap Spell Resistance and Combat Reflexes or Speed Lore in there and be done with it, but that would void 2 of my requirements so a no-go. Thoughts? Would hate to start this char and find out at level 100 that it completely sucks in Niobium NOTE: This assumes completely self-found gear. No bargainer network or anything (thus the Enhanced Perception). I've already spent so many hours of my life staring at shopping screens in Sacred 2 that I've had enough. I want to play the game, not click merchants for hours