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IR Revised V1.3.800 (2022 January 11th)


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To clarify, I'm not an author of IR. I'm a user of IR, and my concern is that improvements or fixes that could be made in IR and enjoyed by everyone, are instead being made in a little private version only to be enjoyed by a few people.

 

I understand (vaguely) the issues regarding 1pp compatibility. And I understand the problem of IR being fairly stalled over a number of years. I only speak up now because it appears that 1) you are adding things that have nothing to do with 1pp, and 2) you are adding things now, when IR has been actively developed and it is up on Github so it's easy for people who make fixes to offer them to the main branch.

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I don't know how I can really solve that, though. Look at the package and compare it to the main IR package. Open up IR's language file and open up mine: it's too different to really reconcile the two. What am I supposed to do, submit suggested changes for all 1000+ changes (plus all the additional text for newly handled items)? Mike has already looked at my text file and incorporated what he wanted of it...there are simply creative differences here. For example, I really don't like "ungrounded" text: text like "Immunity to confusion and feeblemindness" that just sits there awkwardly. I prefer something like "Protects Against: Confusion and Feeblemindedness". I would be open to changing the "Protects Against:" bit to something else, ("Effect Immunity:"?) but I wouldn't want to abandon the grounded text entirely, so my only option is to maintain my own fork. And that's just the text: there are a ton of graphical change reversions so that it's compatible with 1PP for non-EE installs (and from what I'm seeing of BG2:EE right now, IRR should be, if anything, more compatible than base IR due to the 1PP reversions - any improved graphics from the EEs should stay mostly the same, with the exception of paperdoll/sprite stuff...but if people want me to fix that to more closely match the EEs, I could probably figure something out for that by having alternate .itm files installed contingent upon it detecting the install being an EE, too): there's also design tweaks (for example, non-+5 Flail of Ages now always cause one effect of one of the heads, regardless of whether there's 5 heads or only 1, instead of the flat 20% that causes non-+5 FoAs to sometimes cause no effect at all - I suggested this change years ago, and it was rejected for reasons I never really understood; I even slightly reduced the durations of the effects to try to balance it a little). In my item_rev/itm directory, there's currently 1,111 changed files (most of them very minor). So what's a guy to do except make his own fork, right? (e): Also, Mike didn't want to integrate the 1PP reversions, so that's another pretty huge wrench in trying to reconcile the two different versions: it's the entire reason I made this. That's just a no-go.

 

And there's the problem: compatibility fixes, bug fixes, and design tweaks have all been jumbled together because it was originally just for me. So how do you propose that I fix this, exactly? I can't really think of any good solutions...

Edited by Bartimaeus
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Also, for clarification purposes on 1PP: 1PP is the reason that the EEs have much improved graphics and icons compared to the non-EE, especially helms and shields. It's the reason why Foebane and similar items look like DLTCEP_2017-08-11_00-25-48.png and not like DLTCEP_2017-08-11_00-26-20.png in the EEs...or that the Ravager looks like an actual sweet halberd (EE/1PP) instead of a silly pitchfork like it does in the vanilla game (and never mind the massive coloring and sprite and paperdoll work throughout the game in general). Erephine (the creator of 1PP) worked with the EE devs to get some of her work integrated into the EE. So for those of us on non-EE installs (whether because we don't feel like buying them or because we genuinely prefer the originals - I count myself in the latter category), it's nice to be able to install 1PP and IR together to get all the excellent work that she did. With vanilla IR, you can't do it because IR has a partial integration of a very old version of 1PP that's incompatible with the latest (1ppv4) - it creates all sorts of bugs and glitches between the two if you try to install them together as-is. That's why I made my version of the mod - so you could actually install them together free of issues - but somewhere along the way, I also got involved in fixing what I perceived to be the issues of IR, including what I thought was "bad", underutilized, and/or imbalanced items, items that mysteriously weren't touched at all by IR - not even a standardized item description update - and a few other things. Like I said, if I could do it all over again, I'd start with compatibility issues first, and then move into design tweaks separately, but it's too late for that, I think.

 

Also, as said above, the fact that Mike doesn't want to remove the partial integration of 1pp (for the purposes of letting it be handled by the latest version of 1PP or the EEs, both of which handle it better and more completely than I think IR can hope to achieve at this point short of putting in a massive amount of work to attempt to integrate 1ppv4) is a very serious hurdle to clear here. So yeah, maybe this won't ever be used too much, but Mike did at least graciously give me the O.K. to post it, which means it's at least here and people could use it if they wanted. About all I can ask for right now, I think, especially considering that this was entirely for my own use originally anyways.

 

(e): Also, thanks for inspiring me to test its installation on BG2:EE. There was one small problem that prevented Store Revisions from being properly installed, but now everything should install correctly in version 1.08c. Should work the same for EET installs. Still no fixed descriptions for EE-only items, but I don't know what the new items are: if somebody wanted to give me a list of new items from the EE (just give me their names, or point me to another website that lists them), them I could standardize their descriptions to match IR's descriptions.

Edited by Bartimaeus
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And there's the problem: compatibility fixes, bug fixes, and design tweaks have all been jumbled together because it was originally just for me. So how do you propose that I fix this, exactly? I can't really think of any good solutions...

One solution is to fork the github repository and then split your changes into distinct branches. For example, one branch for typos and corrections like the capitalization changes you have, one branch for 1pp removal, one branch for bug fixes in original IR items and descriptions, etc. This way, Demi and Mike can easily merge the branches they want and keep the controversial branches unmerged. It will be a large and tedious task though.

 

If you decide to try this path, you can also use Lynx's excellent IE parser tools as git filters so git diff can show readable text differences between the binary item files which makes working with them a bit easier.

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1,111 files in my /itm directory right now. The normal IR package is 1,191 files. If you add them together, it's 1,477 files. So...subtracting, that's at least 825 of IR's /itm files changed. I just gotta be honest: trying to differ them would take literal months of my free time, probably somewhere in the range of 3-6. I'm not sure that I have the patience for that when Mike has shown no interest in the 1PP reversions OR my additional text changes. Like, I can give you an altered (English) text file that doesn't have any of my own content changes, that if you were to overwrite vanilla IR's, should correctly match all the stats of vanilla IR (besides a few of vanilla IR's own oversights, like Rod of Resurrection). I have that already, because I gave Mike a new language file probably a year ago, and he integrated some of its changes, and rejected others. I've also since maintained it since discovering other problems. So besides fixing some of the additional problems I've since found, he's rejected the remaining text changes (...which is around 700 differences or so). I can post that language file if people want with some general notes for what I've done, but I'm pretty sure Mike has no interest in it besides those few additional problems that I've since discovered.

 

Here you go, do a WinMerge comparison: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/2vk5em3kpm65huz/item_descriptions%20%28vanilla%201.04%29.tra

 

NOTES:

1. Not every special ability, like Mass Cure and such, has its specific properties (for example, bonus healing as a result of hp/level modifiers) specified, because I did not know them when creating this. As a result, some special abilities are more specific for that (and in terms of duration) than others: ideally, somebody would figure out the exact specifics of each ability and write them out to be consistent here.

2. Wands are a disaster...but they are in vanilla IR, too. Why does Wand of Fire have Fireball and Aganazar's? Why does Wand of Frost have something called "Freezing Sphere" instead of "Cold of Cold"? I don't know. Wands are slightly re-balanced and fixed in my IRR, but I don't know the specifics of Wand abilities in vanilla IR.

3. A few special abilities should really be switched around: Staff of Power, for example, should really have Globe of Invulnerability first and Hold Monster second, but since the abilities are ordered like that in vanilla IR, once again...

4. There are a few apparent "redesigns" (for example, Cloak of Elvenkind) that are actually the result of these items not correctly matching up with their descriptions, and thus me changing them to actually do so. It's possible that there are a couple that are my fault (for example, one weapon or here having an incorrect speed factor...alternatively, vanilla IR may instead have an incorrect speed factor compared to what it should be). Additionally, a couple of items may still not match up with what they actually are as a result of a vanilla IR oversight: for example, the Rod of Resurrection says it can Revive Dead 2x per day, but if I recall correctly, it actually functions as a wand and just has 10 charges before burning out.

5. Some properties (e.g. Envenomed, Icy, Fiery) have their names changed to be consistent in naming and/or not overlap with others when differing in function.

6. Flavor text is somewhat curtailed for combat abilities in order for readability purposes. This could be easily reverted via WinMerge if desired, but I felt as though some of it was a little over the top for otherwise really straight-forward functions (...e.g. the Spectral Blade property).

7. Vanilla IR is inconsistent regarding radiuses/radii: sometimes when it says something like "within 10'", it will omit the "radius" after "10'". I have opted for removing the "radius" bit entirely: if one wanted to readd it, it's probably best that they add an "a" after the "within", so it reads "within a 10' radius".

8. Probably a couple of other things, but I don't remember. (e): For example, some properties are a little re-ordered on some items in order to match an overall order consistent with other items.

Edited by Bartimaeus
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A short status update of my recent BWS-BGT install (using your version 1.07 and 1.02b 1pp-patch) ; so far everything seems to be working just fine, both 1pp and IR content are happily co-existing with zillion other mods (nice to see those weapons finally aligning with elven avatars). One question though, does your mod alter IR store revisions? I'm asking because darts for some reason cost 27 gold for 10 pcs. I have moved store revisions component after SR, aTweaks and RR as per IR readme, I don't know if this is still required/recommended.

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To clarify, I get all that (sort of) but my concern is with stuff like this:

[blockquote]Fixed a compatibility problem regarding the Horn/Claw of Kazgaroth with Almateria's(sp?) Restoration Project. Now the two should match each other...if ARP is installed before IR (which it is in the default BWS install order).[/blockquote]

 

That seems to be something unrelated to 1pp, and not one of 1,000 things hiding in your files, but an independent fix you did just now. You seem to be actively working on this, and as long as active work is being done that doesn't rely on your changes files, it would be nice if that work was shared with people who are still using the standard version.

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A short status update of my recent BWS-BGT install (using your version 1.07 and 1.02b 1pp-patch) ; so far everything seems to be working just fine, both 1pp and IR content are happily co-existing with zillion other mods (nice to see those weapons finally aligning with elven avatars). One question though, does your mod alter IR store revisions? I'm asking because darts for some reason cost 27 gold for 10 pcs. I have moved store revisions component after SR, aTweaks and RR as per IR readme, I don't know if this is still required/recommended.

 

For Store Revisions, only a few things were altered (nothing too grand like merchants getting total reworks or anything like that). Darts costing 27 gold for 10!? Um...like, non-enchanted darts? That's really weird. From all merchants, or just one? I double-checked the .itm and it should have a base price of 1 like all unenchanted ammo, so I'm not sure exactly what's happened: we should figure that out even if it's not IRR. Also, as for installation order, the entirety of IR should be installed after SR...and you can install store revisions immediately after the main component. If you did not install the main component after SR, it's not a huge deal: just a couple of strings will be slightly wrong (for example, an item might say Draw upon Holy Might instead of Draw Upon Divine Might).

 

@Subtledoctor: Uh, yeah, that's true, but uh...well, the thing is, the "compatibility fix" is also a little bit of a creative decision. Almateria's adds the Horn of Kazgaroth to Deril in lich form. Previously, I had this somewhere else (another creative decision!), but in vanilla IR, it's not placed anywhere, as far as I can remember. So what I did was patch remove it from Deril, and then patch re-add it again: that way, there aren't duplicates of it in different places, there aren't two copies of it on Deril if you install both Almateria's and IRR, and it's actually somewhere in the game even if you only install IRR and not Almateria's. So if that's something Mike or you (since you've done some maintenance work on it) want to add to base IR, by all means. Most fixes of these type are found in item_rev/components/item_reallocation.tpa. Most of the "fixes" I have made include:

 

1. Removing the duplicate Boots of Phasing from Viekang (as base IR moves them to the House Jae'lat Weaponmaster)

2. Removing the duplicate Bala's Axe from UB's Planar Sphere (base IR adds them to Mencar Pebblecrusher)

3. Enabling the poisoning the Druid Grove quest for non-evil characters (why this quest is seemingly the only evil option that is arbitrarily denied to good AND neutral characters, I have no idea, and it makes no sense, ergo it's no longer the case)

4. Fixing the Eagle Bow addition that was supposed to be added to the Vaylgar ranger guard (base IR says it gives the Eagle Bow to them, but actually gives a non-droppable variant)

5. Disabling the Mithral Plate armor addition to Gromnir (because base IR already adds it elsewhere and Demi probably just didn't remember...or something)

6. Moving Gloves of Missile Snaring to Mae'var (if I'm not mistaken, Demi wanted to find a home for them, and while Mae'var might not be the best option - in fact, he shouldn't even be able to wear them as a multi-class - there's pretty limited choices for thieves who only use one weapon: open to better ideas here)

7. Removing the duplicate Boots of Lightning Speed (base IR made it the reward for freeing the imprisoned Raevilin in the Underdark) from Habib (guy who throws scimitars at you in the Slums; IRR changes this reward to instead be Boots of the Shifting Sands, a new pair of boots that I added for the time being that replaces IR's broken/unused Spider's Boots of Stealth, and instead places Boots of Lightning Speed elsewhere entirely)

8. Removing the duplicate Water's Edge +3 from the correct creature (base IR tries to remove it from alufiend01.cre, but it should actually be removed from alufiend02.cre)

9. Removing the totally random Lawgiver duplicate from the Ulgoth's Beard home in BG1 (yes, it checks to make sure that the area exists so it still works even if you're not playing BGT/EET)

10. Removing the duplicate Rod of Resurrection Mekrath's Lair (way too strong to have a more or less free copy, and since IR adds it to one of the temple stores...)

11. Removing the duplicate Boots of Stealth from Mae'vars locked chest (you can get this from the halfling innkeeper in the Bridge...) and replacing it with the Ring of Night's Embrace (so that it's placed somewhere in BG2, and also thematically this fits perfectly and I was surprised this wasn't already done)

13. Removing a few "odd" copies of items and replacing them with "good" (i.e. much more prevalent) copies (including Battle Axe +2's AX1H03 and AX1H11, Flail's BLUN02 and BLUN08, Mace +2's BLUN11 and BLUN21, and Full Plate Mail +1's PLAT05 and PLAT14) so that they stack properly in containers/stores

14. The Deril Horn of Kazgaroth addition/fix.

15. Disabling the Arrow of Fire -> arowkc.itm overwrite. arowkc is the Kobold Commander undroppable variant of Arrow of Fire. In BG1, the original idea was that Kobold Commanders would shoot fire arrows at you, but when you killed them, they would only have 2 (or less) of the normal Arrow of Fire that you could actually pick up (as they would shoot the undroppable variants first). This made it so you didn't accumulate two million Arrows of Fire for basically for free whenever you fought kobolds in BG1. For some reason, IR made it so that they could be dropped, so you have two different Arrows of Fire that cannot be stacked, and you get a million of them. I have disabled that from happening.

16. ...Maybe a few other things. (e): Also, removed the duplicate Cloak of the Shield from the Planar Sphere Bounty Hunter so that it's Fiekrag-only (...also, my IRR revises it to be more useful, so this actually makes sense). As a trade-off, I gave it a Cloak of Protection +1 and the Jade Hound Figurine (like Gloves of Missile Snaring, this likely isn't the best place for it, but I haven't come up with anything else yet...also, does any other mod place the Jade Hound Figurine elsewhere?).

 

You're free to integrate any of these into base IR as you please. If you need help finding them, just let me know what you want.

Edited by Bartimaeus
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I'm a dummy, and don't let anybody ever tell you differently. I set its base value to 1 (from 0) so that they can (theoretically) be sold without thinking about what it would do to its buying price. That makes their base price the same as throwing daggers. Hmm. Well, I'll revert that. Thanks!

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I think I figured out why the Radiant Heart dude sometimes gives you two options to ask if you can see their store, and one of them works, and one of them doesn't. A missing condition for detecting that your reputation is lower than 17 was the cause. It's funny: the comment that presumably Demi wrote actually mentions it, but it's not actually written in there, so if you had >=17 reputation and you were not in the Order of the Radiant Heart and were a Paladin, or if you had 20 reputation and you were good but neither in the Order or a Paladin, you would erroneously get two options. I have fixed it...and also I'm going to open the store up to neutral characters if they have 20 reputation, as well: I figure as long as you aren't actually radiating evil and your reputation is of legendary proportions, they probably aren't going to bother to detect whether you're actually good or just neutral, right? Unless people actually felt strongly otherwise about it, I guess...

 

(e): Version 1.09 changelog:

1. Boots of the West are placed in-game at the same location as UB places them (compatible if IR is installed after UB).

2. Jade Hound Figurine is only placed if UB's Kidnapping of Boo is not installed (as this component uses it).

3. Bug that I created regarding an area patch is fixed (it would check that one area exists, but then patch another).

4. Fixed Order of the Heart store duplicate dialogue option (...it actually was a little more complicated than I wrote above, but from what I tested, everything seems to work correctly now).

5. Changed Ankheg Armor back to +1 to match vanilla IR. I changed it back to +2 for the purposes of BG2 (it's too expensive to justify making), but for the time being, I've reverted it back. I'd like to eventually make it cheaper to make (something like 2500 instead of the current 5000).

6. Wizard Slayers can no longer wear Boots of the Shifting Sands (doh!).

7. Vampire's Revenge is a little harsher (1 HP every 2 rounds instead of every 3 rounds).

8. Web Sack is placed in a drow store unless UB's Spider Bane quest component is installed (as this component uses it).

9. Sword of Balduran +2 (Long Sword) is back.

10. Angurvadal +4 receives a +2 strength bonus when equipped; it becomes a +3 bonus when Angurvadal is upgraded to its +5 variant. The weapon was just a little...plain for my tastes compared to some of the other +5 upgradeables, and the vanilla BG2 version of the weapon actually did give you a strength bonus, so I figured why not?

11. Sunstone Bullet's Sunschorch effect now matches SR's base Sunscorch damage (2D6): however, the amount available in stores has been roughly halved because it's kind of strong. They're also a little more expensive now.

 

1.09b changelog:

1. Gloves of Missile Snaring are no longer on Mae'var, but instead purchasable from Kich (shadow thief merchant in Trademeet). I thought Mae'var was a neat idea, but you already get enough nice stuff in that quest line (and technically he shouldn't even be able to wear them), and I just can't really think of anywhere to place them. Boots of Lightning Speed have also been moved here from the Underdark duerger store so that you can get them earlier...if you want.

2. Fixed a couple of item abilities that I screwed up.

3. The Jade Hound Figurine is now instead located at the nature store in the Umar Hills (again, only if the Kidnapping of Boo isn't installed). The Jade Hound is probably the weakest summoning item outside of the Silver Horn of Valhalla, so hopefully this shouldn't be too unbalanced: really am struggling to think of a good place for this.

4. Battering Ram now does 2D6 crushing damage (same as SR: thought it was 2D8, but apparently not!).

5. Arrow of Dispelling, Arrow of Slaying, Arrow of Acid, and Arrow of Detonation all had their enchantment levels reverted back to vanilla IR...with the exception of Arrow of Slaying, which is now a +2 instead of +1 arrow (mainly because there basically aren't any +2 arrows and this arrow is expensive as heck and should carry a better enchantment level). The ones that aren't Arrow of Acid were originally tweaked to try to make their enchantment levels get closer to their crazy prices, but after considering the issue again, I think it's unnecessary. Arrow of Acid now has the same initial damage as SR's Melf's Acid Arrow (which it was kind of close to in vanilla IR, but slightly off).

Edited by Bartimaeus
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No problem, and I hope you enjoy. As said before, feedback is welcome, particularly on the new items handled or the few items that were redesigned a bit. I just uploaded 1.09b right now with the fixes above, so you should probably use that.

 

(e): I'm a dummy. 1.09c uploaded. Changelog:

1. Crossbow of Affliction now has an equipped -1 constitution penalty (...I had planned to add this before, but had forgotten and instead the description said it would feed off the user but then actually didn't do anything...), and it's "Contagious" ability is now re-named "Scourging", which it shares with Spear of Withering.

2. A few instances of gray -> grey in the text.

3. Provided a movement rate bonus for the Astral Hound and Cerebus, since their move speeds were so slow.

Edited by Bartimaeus
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Can you provide additional details about installing this mod? After extracting IR v4 beta 10, what am I supposed to do? I mean, if I overwrite the main item_rev directory with your item_rev directory, I get errors.... (I'm using BG:EE)

 

If I understand correctly (which is never certain), this version is really only useful for BGT, not EE, and is specifically for people who combine IR with 1PPv4. If you're playing the EEs, just use the latest beta of IRv4.

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