NEW Project: Sacred 2 Purist Fixpack

[Flix 5,156]

You're way off base about usagebits. I enabled/disabled skill based bonuses from spawning for certain characters. It's not going to affect spells, creatures, or item drops in any way.

[Lindor 530]

10 minutes ago, Flix said:

You're way off base about usagebits. I enabled/disabled skill based bonuses from spawning for certain characters. It's not going to affect spells, creatures, or item drops in any way.

Well I'm not so sure about that. There needs to be someone who has the amount of willpower and patience to do a test series on that before I believe that.

But even if that's true, the main open questions remain untouched still:

• boni don't spawn for characters, they spawn on items which drop for characters. So the question is: do usagebits disable the bonus spawning on the item based on the weargroups of the item or based on the character which got the drop?
• let x be the set of relevant heroes for a bonus appearing on the item. x depends on the answer to the first question, it's either the set of heroes which can use the item or it's the set of heroes which got the item dropped.
  Now for the bonus to be able to appear on the item, do the usagebits for ALL elements of x have to be equal to 1 or do they have to be equal to 1 for AT LEAST ONE element of x?
• There are two kinds of item drops, depending on the isUsablebyhero line in balance.txt which sets the relative amount of these two kinds of item drops. Do usagebits only affect itemdrops for usable items or do they affect all dropped items?
• What happens if there's an item drop with a bonusgroup which does not have any enabled boni in it?

The answer to the final two questions is also the key to the answer to wether it affects item drops or not.

[Flix 5,156]

7 hours ago, Lindor said:

A question which came int my mind: Did you include the questscripts.txt changes which I proposed a while back?

I included it in the previous release and also gave you a shout-out for your contribution.

7 hours ago, Lindor said:

Also after another read-through of this thread, I think this one might've went over your head:

No, I continue to quietly ignore it because I'm lumping it in with other German localization issues.

1 hour ago, Lindor said:

• boni don't spawn for characters, they spawn on items which drop for characters. So the question is: do usagebits disable the bonus spawning on the item based on the weargroups of the item or based on the character which got the drop?
• let x be the set of relevant heroes for a bonus appearing on the item. x depends on the answer to the first question, it's either the set of heroes which can use the item or it's the set of heroes which got the item dropped.
  Now for the bonus to be able to appear on the item, do the usagebits for ALL elements of x have to be equal to 1 or do they have to be equal to 1 for AT LEAST ONE element of x?
• There are two kinds of item drops, depending on the isUsablebyhero line in balance.txt which sets the relative amount of these two kinds of item drops. Do usagebits only affect itemdrops for usable items or do they affect all dropped items?
• What happens if there's an item drop with a bonusgroup which does not have any enabled boni in it?

Those are interesting questions, and while I have my speculations, I don't know for sure.

That being said, no matter the answers to any of that, there's no way usagebits is going to affect an item's chance of dropping.

For example, I disabled Pole Arms +X and Pole Arms-unlockable modifiers from spawning on armor and weapons that a Temple Guardian could wear.  There's no way anyone else could wear that armor, and no Pole Arms bonuses appear on weapons other than Pole Arms, so there's no way anyone else could be affected by that.  Usagebits doesn't interact backwards into weargroup.

[Lindor 530]

10 minutes ago, Flix said:

For example, I disabled Pole Arms +X and Pole Arms-unlockable modifiers from spawning on armor and weapons that a Temple Guardian could wear.  There's no way anyone else could wear that armor, and no Pole Arms bonuses appear on weapons other than Pole Arms, so there's no way anyone else could be affected by that.  Usagebits doesn't interact backwards into weargroup.

Now I see what you're getting at here, but that's not what I mean.

The idea is that you disabled, let's say, pole arms, tactics lore and offensive skills for high elf gear. Assuming that usagebits depend on the hero character you're currently playing, and without usagebits there would now a weapon drop occur which has a bonusgroup of only these three boni. But because of the usagebits, the weapon doesn't drop. Or maybe it rerolls to another random drop until it gets something that works.

Another possibility, this time assuming that it only influences the boni depending on the weargroup, is that usagebits decrease the elements of the set of drops usable by the hero, therefore influencing the drops you get via the balance.txt isUsablebyhero line. Like the game says that now a usable drop should occur, and a weapon gets dropped with only bonusgroups that have at least one usable bonus which immediately excludes many weapons.

Or both the usagebits AND the isUsablebyhero line only depend on the weargroup of the item and it is enough that at least one usagebit equals 1. In this case usagebits really wouldn't influence drops but the heroes would still get dropped tons of gear, mostly weapons I think, with inappropriate boni they can't utilize.

There are so many different possibilities that usagebits could influence drops. And then there are also those boni which are used both for items and spells, and we don't know what happens if a hero or an enemy uses a spell with a token that is bound to a bonus whose usagebit says it can't occur because of the character class you're playing.

I don't want to tell you what to do, I just want to draw your attention to something which I think might've been overlooked.

37 minutes ago, Flix said:

No, I continue to quietly ignore it because I'm lumping it in with other German localization issues.

haha I see

[Flix 5,156]

 

1 hour ago, Lindor said:

And then there are also those boni which are used both for items and spells, and we don't know what happens if a hero or an enemy uses a spell with a token that is bound to a bonus whose usagebit says it can't occur because of the character class you're playing.

Maybe this will make you feel better -There is not a single bonus I changed that fits this criteria.  There's also not a single bonus I changed that was formerly "usable by all" either.  Many had absolutely bizarre restrictions.  Time and testing will tell the wisdom of the change.

Most likely, the close-to-infallible solution would be to make every blueprint single-weargroup.  I can't begin to fathom that amount of work though.

[Lindor 530]

1 minute ago, Flix said:

Maybe this will make you feel better

Haha I feel fine thx

1 minute ago, Flix said:

Most likely, the close-to-infallible solution would be to make every blueprint single-weargroup.  I can't begin to fathom that amount of work though.

Don't worry, I'm scripting blueprint.txt at the moment which will do smth like that automatically. My mod's blueprint.txt will basically include an automatic bonusgroup creator. Modding bonusgroups will become so much easier - want to lower the bonus tier of tactics lore? No problem - one single change! With a little bit more work, an automatic bonusgroup checking tool can be made out of it.

But as I said, probably outside the scope of PFP as it won't keep the Vanilla balance.

 

 

[Flix 5,156]

29 minutes ago, Lindor said:

outside the scope of PFP

This is frankly one of my favorite things to see lately, as I can breathe a sigh of relief that I don't have to worry about it.

Now for EE on the other hand... 

[Lindor 530]

  id = 2235,
  name = "set_weapon_sera_ancient_shield",

why does this exist in pfp blueprint.txt? didn't that come with EE?

[Flix 5,156]

4 minutes ago, Lindor said:

  id = 2235,
  name = "set_weapon_sera_ancient_shield",

why does this exist in pfp blueprint.txt? didn't that come with EE?

No it's a vanilla item, but junk tier in vanilla. You would see merchant stock inundated with it.

[Lindor 530]

I have the unconfirmed theory that palettebits can prevent an item from dropping for a certain hero with the same functionality as usagebits. If that's true, it might help fixing some stuff (I'm thinking jester's hat?)

[dimitrius154 614]

38 minutes ago, Lindor said:

palettebits can prevent an item from dropping for a certain hero with the same functionality as usagebits

Interesting. If true, the mask should be the same. And there's some coding to do.

[Flix 5,156]

39 minutes ago, Lindor said:

have the unconfirmed theory that palettebits can prevent an item from dropping for a certain hero with the same functionality as usagebits.

You haven't even confirmed that usagebits affects items dropping.  It seems your assumption is that usagebits on a bonus can flag an item as "isusablebyhero" in balance.txt, but I don't know where you're getting that from.

[Lindor 530]

28 minutes ago, Flix said:

You haven't even confirmed that usagebits affects items dropping.

Yeah, with "same functionality as usagebits" I meant that the palettebits are in the same order as usagebits. like "bit 0" stands for "seraphim" etc.

I neither assume that usagebits can influence drops nor do I exclude it.

wether or not usagebits can influence item drops is not relevant for the palettebits theory.

Edited June 29, 2022 by Lindor

[dimitrius154 614]

1 hour ago, Lindor said:

Yeah, with "same functionality as usagebits" I meant that the palettebits are in the same order as usagebits. like "bit 0" stands for "seraphim" etc.

There's a simpler answer - someone had mixed up parameters.

[Lindor 530]

1 hour ago, dimitrius154 said:

There's a simpler answer - someone had mixed up parameters.

Actually I don't understand what you mean

[dimitrius154 614]

7 hours ago, Lindor said:

I don't understand what you mean

I haven't checked that yet, but it's possible, that "palettebits" is erroneously used instead of "usagebits" at some filter function.

[Flix 5,156]

I'm very happy to release Purist Fixpack version 1.3!

Many thanks to all the diligent players who reported all the bugs since March.  Also props to IdBeholdMe for doing some pre-release testing.

Some important notes:

• There is now a "Disk Version Patch" included with the download. The patch should be installed after the main PFP, and only for players who use the disk version of Sacred 2. Digital versions do not require this patch.  This will prevent the copyright protections from triggering and making the Dragon Mage unplayable.
• For all players upgrading from v1.2, I recommend you wait until you are ready to progress to a new difficulty before upgrading to 1.3, otherwise you may end up with numerous quest hirelings that you cannot get rid of.  Also, I regret to say that due to fixing the way inappropriate bonuses spawn on items, you will find that your normal/magic/rare items will have their bonuses re-rolled after upgrading to 1.3.

The links in the lead post are updated.

• NexusMods
• Google Drive
• Total Changelog

Here is the final changelog for 1.3:

Spoiler

[Quest]

• "A Letter Home" (Light path): Dialogue is now clear on what Accept/Decline options are.
• "A New Hope": Silmia is now a human like her father. Militia members no longer wear bugged DeMordrey gear.
• "Ambush!" & "Ambush...again" (HE classquests): Added the missing quest markers for these phases.
• "Among Orcs" (Light path): Friendly Grurag Orcs are no longer attackable in the battle outside Sloptok.
• "Among Orcs" (Shadow path): Orc guards should no longer attack friendly Ore-Thag Orcs.
• "Attack is the Best Defense": Du'Rach attack in El'Darrag should now trigger properly.
• "Attack of the Undead": added the missing dialogue after the initial rescue.
• "Dark Rituals": Essence of Dark Matters junk item no longer drops as reward.
• "Debt Collector" & "Collecting Desert Weed" (High Elf classquests): Will now appear correctly in the logbook.
• "D'Elfici: The Promissory Note" (HE classquest): Removed the Glydial duplicate in the sewers.
• "Easter Has Come": Speaking to the Easter Bunny is now required to start the quest, to prevent accidental failure.
• "Ephrahim's Nightmare": Restored the logbook structure back to the vanilla 4 phases.
• "Feed the Poor": Quest now has missing XP reward.
• "The Great Machine": Nimonuil no longer resurrects for a second round after his defeat.
• "Hunting Fever III": Adjusted the start trigger until after part II is completed.
• "The Passive Water Elemental," "The Djinn," and the Air Elemental from "Will-o-Wisps" will now spawn correctly.
• "Orcish Necromancers" (SW shadow classquest): Winderlich is now undead when he appears in the Seraphim Islands.
• "Plowshares to Swords": player now collects plows instead of shovels. The smith opens for business after quest completion.
• "Manners Maketh Kobold": Removed the duplicate Village Fool in Wargfels. The quest fool now transitions into a bard after quest completion.
• "On Kirich's Heels" (HE classquest): Moved the Seraphim port guard from the arena to the port.
• "Semil Keytan" (Inquisitor Classquest): Scouting Party south of Ruka will no longer spawn until the appropriate quest phase. The map trigger near Karagh and Semil's positioning in the cage have been adjusted. Fisherman on Seraphim Isle now uses the correct model.
• "Shirka and Keytan" (Inquisitor Classquest): Duplicates of Shirka and Semil should no longer appear throughout this phase. Shirka is now dressed in civilizan clothes throughout.
• "The Spirit of Atherton": Dialogue with Horde Champion is now clear on what Accept/Decline options are.
• "Unexpected News": Meliondor should no longer be attacked by Shadow-aligned NPC's.

[Combat Arts]

• Restored missing SFX and VFX for many enemy combat arts.
• Combat Art grunts and yells should no longer interrupt spoken comments and dialogue from the player.
• The broken "Energy Leech" property on enemy spells now functions (disrupts player CA regeneration).
• Reverted spell debuffs to opponent attack, defense, and armor back to vanilla behavior, which was originally percentage based and not actually broken.
• Pelting Strikes: Projectile count & animations reverted back to vanilla.
• Rousing Command: Bronze mod "Persistence" now has the correct tooltip text.
• Frenized Rampage: Projectile count & animations reverted back to vanilla.
• Killing Spree: Bronze mod "Control" now indicates the per-hit boost. Silver mod "Perseverance" now has the correct tooltip text. Gold mod "Sway" tooltip now indicates total speed per-hit.
• Augmenting Guidon: Gold mod "Fear" restored, bug with debuffing the player is fixed.
• Battle Extension: Projectile count & animations reverted back to vanilla.

[Creature]

• Issue with dirty-looking shadows on the player and NPC's should be resolved.
• Abishai's eye-spawns now have correct A.I. and the ability no longer makes a Shadow Warrior yell.
• All creatures with fur now use the fur shader in appropriate places.
• Blackhammer's hair fix no longer also applies to red-headed knights.
• Black Seraphim is now able to attack the player and use a hard hit attack.
• Blood Dryads are no longer missing special move animations for their Hard Hit attacks.
• Bog Demon and new Wastelands demon A.I. changed to match the other demons.
• Crystal elite enemies (Aracin, Hucin, Percalacin) no longer give half XP.
• Crows no longer fly along the ground.
• Enemies should no longer spawn inside Nambarah (Desert village).
• Gar'Colossus: Stone Throw now functions as intended. Stones are persistent and will heal Gar'Colossus until destroyed.
• Gar'Colossus, Kraal of the Winged Daemons, Mist of Miasma: Added some missing special move animations.
• Human Slaverobber (normal class, white face paint) no longer gives double XP.
• Mutated Dragon boss now spawns correctly in the T-Energy Field.
• Neutral atmospheric animals expanded to more appropriate regions.
• Priests of the 6 gods no longer have swapped appearances. They now appear correctly in the Desecrated Gods quests instead of random citizens.
• Hunting Spiders: Broken jump attack now functions.
• Liches: No longer have passive A.I.
• Mounted opponents are now able to use their special moves.
• More archer-type enemies will now use and prefer their bows.
• Friendly werewolves in Lizurath now all use a different design from the generic werewolves.
• Snapping Turtle "Ramming" special move should now function.
• Stone Warriors/Archers will now use all types of stone weapons made for them. Stone Commanders now have animations for their 2h stone hammers.
• Terror Boars: Fixed the swapped XP values between normal & elite variants.
• Thraconian Captains are now able to use their 2h hafted weapons.

[Item]

• All instances of item modifiers spawning for characters who can't use them should be resolved.
• Quest set item rewards will no longer be doubled or accompanied by extra unique armor drops.
• Energy Pistols will no longer roll with Shadow Warrior bonuses.
• Energy Staves will no longer roll with High Elf or Temple Guardian bonuses.
• Sweetie's Ring no longer drops from "The Alchemist" quest.
• Horse Saddles: All unused designs are now restored.

[Misc]

• Debuff Duration is now referred to as "Detrimental Effects" in tooltips.
• Shortened the "Activated Resurrection Monolith" tooltip to avoid map clutter.
• Added an additional Disk Version Patch which should fix the problem with the invisible Dragon Mage on disk versions of the game. This was caused by the copyright protection triggering.

 

[Lindor 530]

Haha cgrtz! Minor thing: The Garema daimyo spelling fiy and the fury XP fix aren't documented in the changelog. (I know, I know, always nagging this Lindor guy... )

[Flix 5,156]

1 hour ago, Lindor said:

the fury XP fix

Nothing to fix in PFP.  Elites have double the XP of normal Furies.  It was either fixed in earlier PFP release, or it was never an issue at all until it was introduced in the CM Patch.

1 hour ago, Lindor said:

Garema daimyo spelling fiy

Same explanation as above. Either it was already fixed (or at least ok in English localization) or it was introduced outside of PFP.  Looked fine when I went to check it.

[jwiz 68]

As to missing bowstrings I've just noticed :

Till Spiegeleule's bow from the dryad singleplayer campaign has no bowstring attached to his bow

 

[Lindor 530]

Might be a bug but I could also imagine that it's intended. Till Eulenspiegel is a classical german folkslore trickster. It might be a reference to one of the stories (I don't know them, just know the name and the meaning).

[Hooyaah 2,945]

Flix, you may have already mentioned this somewhere, but every time I return to a game when I'm ready to play again, I always get the pop-up box welcoming me to Ice & Blood. I understand it popping up at the beginning or a new level. However, all the time upon returning is a bit annoying, at least to me it is. Otherwise, besides this and the bonuses re-rolling, I am delighted at the end result.

 

EDIT: The quest The Farm Owner is missing entirely.

 

[Flix 5,156]

8 hours ago, jwiz said:

Till Spiegeleule's bow from the dryad singleplayer campaign has no bowstring attached to his bow

2 hours ago, Hooyaah said:

every time I return to a game when I'm ready to play again, I always get the pop-up box welcoming me to Ice & Blood.

2 hours ago, Hooyaah said:

The quest The Farm Owner is missing entirely.

I wonder if I packaged something improperly.  All three of those things are fixed without a doubt.  I just checked myself.

Question to both of you: at the main menu, does the small text at the bottom left show "PFP 1.3"?

[Hooyaah 2,945]

12 minutes ago, Flix said:

I wonder if I packaged something improperly.  All three of those things are fixed without a doubt.  I just checked myself.

Question to both of you: at the main menu, does the small text at the bottom left show "PFP 1.3"?

Negative, on the Main Menu it indicates v2.65.1 build 1782. Also, there are frequent freezes in the midst of game-play. One must sign out of Windows to get back to one's desktop. The game is non-viable in this state.

[Flix 5,156]

4 minutes ago, Hooyaah said:

Negative, on the Main Menu it indicates v2.65.1 build 1782. Also, there are frequent freezes in the midst of game-play. One must sign out of Windows to get back to one's desktop. The game is non-viable in this state.

Seems to me, PFP is not installed properly on your system. The mod is packaged just like mine always are. Maybe an extra folder got added when you extracted the zip file?

Sitting directly in your game's MODS folder should be 4 folders: PFP Christmas Patch, PFP Disk Version Patch, PFP Docs, Purist Fixpack 1.3.

If this is not the case, I'd advise revisiting how to extract files into the MODS folder.  You want the contents of the zip file going directly into the MODS folder. Don't let Windows or Winzip or whatever utility is extracting the files create a folder to contain the files.