Jump to content

How do "+x, +y vs. z" weapons work in Icewind Dale?


Angel

Recommended Posts

I'm currently looking at using some of my own mods with Icewind Dale (the original, not EE), and ran into something.

 

Icewind Dale has several weapons that are supposed to a special to-hit bonus against a certain creature type, for example Conlan's Hammer (+1, +5 vs. Iron Golems), Giant Killer (+1, +4 vs. Giants), Inconsequence (+4, +5 vs. Good and Evil), The Axe of Caged Souls (+3, +5 vs. Cadaverous Undead) and Pale Justice +4, +7 vs. Evil). However, when I look at the item definitions of such items, I do not see any effects that give such a bonus.

 

So, does anyone know, how do such bonuses for these items work in the original Icewind Dale? Do they even work at all?

Link to comment

Well, maybe they should use the opcodes 178 and 179, but none of the files seem to have them... so ? Maybe they don't actually have any of that. :devlook: Or it's a .exe thing you need to find about.

In IWD:EE, this is done via the use eff opcode 177..

Link to comment

Indeed, it appears to be hardcoded. All the ZZ* weapons lack anything extra, but have the bonus in the description. There are several hits for ZZ in the exe, of course, but it'd be the place to start looking.

Link to comment

Indeed, it appears to be hardcoded. All the ZZ* weapons lack anything extra, but have the bonus in the description. There are several hits for ZZ in the exe, of course, but it'd be the place to start looking.

 

Yeah, that's what I thought too. And .exe hacking is beyond my current skills I'm afraid. (Is there even a guide to it?)

 

No item or spell in IWD uses opcodes 177, 178 or 179, and there isn't a single .eff file in the game so my guess is they won't work at all. But I can give it a try, who knows, maybe they did carry over from BG. :-)

Link to comment

Right, ZZ filename triggers some hardcode in the exe. It can change the attack roll based on alignment (all the instructions like alignment/race type and attack bonus are coded into the filename after ZZ).

 

The targeting code (3. char) is: digit = alignment, letter = race

The numeric code (4. char) is translated to attack roll by this formula: 0: -5, 1: -4, 2: -3, 3: -2, 4: -1, 5: +1, 6:+2 ... 9: +5 (there is obviously no need for 0).

The rest of the filename is arbitrary.

 

The alignment code is: 0 - lawful, 1 - lcneutral, 2 - chaotic, 3 - good, 4 - geneutral, 5 - evil

The race code is:

A - GOLEM

B - LIZARDMAN

C - TANARI

D - ELEMENTAL

E - ORC

F - SALAMANDER

G - TROLL

H - GIANT

I - YUANTI

J - UNDEAD

K - UMBERHULK

L - GOBLIN

M - ELF

N -DWARF

O - GNOME

P - HALFLING

Q - HALFELF

R -HUMAN

S - SPIDER

T -BEETLE

U - GHOUL

V - MYCONID

W - SHRIEKER

X - WOLF

Y - OGRE

Z - SKELETON

Edited by Avenger
Link to comment

This also means, some descriptions are definitely wrong.

 

ZZG7TS - should have a vs. troll bonus of 3 (which is true)

ZZH8GK - should have a vs. giant bonus of 3 (according to its description), but it in fact is a +4. (over its normal +1)

Link to comment

Oh man, thanks Avenger, this is a big help! So, it's the filename that decides what kind of bonus it gets. Kinda messed up if you ask me, but at least that means my little sword +1, +2 vs. Undead is still possible after all.

Link to comment

Did anyone test if this affects the enchantment level and weapon speed as well?

That's doubtful as the items are +1 ... +3's and so have a speed factor based on that, and I doubt the player would even notice the very small change against a few types of enemies, that's way too much hassle.

Link to comment

Necroposting a bit, but based on this post from @sirnicklaus I looked into this a bit. While these items provide damage bonuses to match the to-hit bonuses, they only provide the extra damage on on melee (1) and ranged (2) headers, but not on launcher (4) headers. So e.g. the Giant Killer sling gets to-hit bonuses against giants, but does no bonus damage.

It's not explicitly stated anywhere, but you can add your own items in this space--e.g. a zzb9.itm will add an extra +5 to-hit/damage vs. lizardmen.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...