today's v150h+: hot patch
1) added some remade copies of mission_templates procedures in preparation for revamp of tournaments and arena missions:
a) common_damage_system --> common_damage_tourney removed stealth attacks, keeping unarmed damage, added to tournaments and arena
b) npc_paladin_pre_aura --> tournament_agent_pre_spawn initializes encumbrance, dodge, resists but does not set up lists for casters
c) removed separate calls brawler_strikes, common_battle_sneak_attack; as even the empty stubs of calls slow battles.
2) rebuilt flame_arrow to do damage, especially if the caster magic power is much higher than defenders [magic defense+2]
3) added an NPC spell chooser for sieges that skips selecting {Slow, Chaos} but allows Ice Storm for siege missions only.
this allows one selector for open battles and a narrower selector for sieges, as part of overall siege reform. Dispel Magic gets on that list because it changes movement speed setting in the same mechanic that Slow and Haste did, and it was the RECOVERY from slow/haste that crashed, near as I can tell. Chaos might also crash PBOD siege management, but not open field battles.Ice Storm "probably" is safe, and a few more area effect spells are handy in sieges.
"equip_mages_siege" called at castle_attack_walls_ladder, castle_attack_walls_belfry
"timed_mage_spells" (haste, dispel magic) NOT called at castle_attack_walls_ladder, castle_attack_walls_belfry
4) Ice Storm slightly buffed to do slightly more (+1d4) damage and a variable slight increase in radius of effect, from 10 meters fixed to a variable 10-12 meters depending on dice roll. Damage remains both cold for resists and blunt for (otherwise) killing blows.
5) Diplomacy Horse Speed adjust (when damaged) was ENABLED while the toggle was set to OFF and DISABLED when ON, exactly
backwards from instructions and intuition. Now occurs when ON as expected, not OFF.
dplmc_horse_speed [(eq, "$g_dplmc_horse_speed", 1),],
6) slightly increased minimum brawler (unarmed combat) damage for skill = 0.
(added 1d6 when damage was initially 2 or less; this before armor soak etc).
7) little experiment to set time of day within scenes for battles to be dawn or sunset for ambient lighting when fighting at night, display that value, then use it to set shader ambient light at night. It IS pretty dark at night.
Battles after 9 PM but before 1 AM use 22 as the hour of battle for lighting purposes; Midnight until "less than" 6 AM use 5 AM as the hour of battle for lighting purposes. This gives brighter light for battle. I could justify this for Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, Drow, and Undead as their dark adapted eyesight, but that seems cruel to human skins. Perhaps its a mundane "para-magic". This can be tuned better later; it's enough to find a technique that works for now and invest time in messing with shader settings some other time. It looks like the shader access is fairly easy so it won't be more than a half day to do it "correctly", but right NOW a half day means too many things undone during a fairly crisis laden period.
8 ) I probably better reduce party sizes somewhat, so that players don't feel obliged to increase battle size, which CERTAINLY will crash this mod MUCH more often than it needs to otherwise. That means messing with the reports for party size too, bummer.
result: report (menu) "party_size_report" shows correct total number but errs when calculating the percent influence by faction policy.
It's a close approximation to the right numbers, but I know OCD players will bitterly complain. I'm out of time for today...
It also doesn't show necromancy effects from undead in the party, which for some will have a HUGE influence on party size.
9) Barbarian enraged damage bonus is never under 150% while the barbarian is under 50% health, from a suggestion by Reformist.
It's like this - ASK, you might receive, if I'm not feeling lazy/busy - and it was a clever idea to begin with.
10) adjusted strength on Ogres but it won't have any effect on current save games in progress -- changes to stats in troops file generally happen only at game creation. This because I noticed some ogres moving very slowly in Reformists' videos series for Orc Barbarian.
11) Diplomacy "auto upgrade companions from loot" is less greedy for very heavy gear now.
Specifically, when (chest) armor weighs > 22,
"script_dplmc_get_item_score_with_imod" returns a value 1/2 previously returned, to make the upgrade less desireable
otherwise, when the same chest armor weighs > 15,
the returned value is 2/3rds normal.
This allows some companions already comfortable in leather or lightweight armors to consider not trading those away until the armor is REALLY much better, so they don't stagger around in battle from encumbrance. Many foot troops have high strength; your low level companions may not!
Status: Released