v7 changelog

[DavidW]

The systematic changes are:

 

- a revised algorithm for handling death variables that doesn't choke on over-long creature names

- a partial reversion to an older way of handling hidden creatures, as the new way doesn't work very well in multi-player games

- correction of a typo which was preventing random treasure appearing in chests

- correction of a mismap of scripts that was causing various creatures (e.g. Therik) to wipe their own scripts

- removal of the ability for creatures to run between areas (this was causing large numbers of bugs)

- shift to the Infinity Animations method of handling creature animations (among other benefits, this significantly decreases install time, as animations now install in 2 minutes rather than 45.)

- upgrade to the latest version of ToBEx

- correction of a typo in the script compiler that was preventing some creatures (e.g. Mother Egenia) from resetting their location

- some general tweaking of the GUI

 

Complete(ish) changelog:

 

 

- rebuilt local version of v6 from Easyv6, Cam's fixpack and local v5 (sigh)

- fixed typo that was preventing random loot appearing in containers

- tweaked the character generation GUI to look better

- cone of cold's projectiles worked fine in the main converter but weren't being copied over to the Easy version

- edited the strings used at character generation for specialist mages to match the actual UI

- reverted Blindness to 1st level, so that illusionists can actually select a first-level spell and get off the CG screen

- identified and rectified a systematic error in the mapping of ChangeCurrentScript(), based on a mislabelling of Actor scripts in ARE files by NI.

- fixed a vanilla-game problem where Therik didn't initiate conversation if you returned to AR3301.

- added hand-management of random ammunition, since the automated method doesn't handle multiple items well.

- fixed a bug in sound conversion that wasn't mapping creatures random "twitch" sounds over properly.

- opcode 59 (stealth) now boosts both Move Silently and Hide In Shadows.

- corrected glitch in vanilla IWD that was preventing Hold Monster's icon from being visible in the conversion.

- Flozem now reliably drops his inventory (fix to dflozem.dlg).

- We now map ForceHide() to an autocasting of silent invisibility, rather than the unreliable Hide().

- Fixed a dialog bug where Valestis only wanted 3 items to brighten the arboretum. (It's inexplicable to me how the original ever worked - but it did.)

- Caught still more XPVar strings that the converter was missing.

- slightly tweaked the logic of Cam's OnIsland() workaround.

- Greater Werewolf is now immune to normal weapns (vanilla IWD bug).

- Fixed an error in the .ini converter, which inter alia was preventing Hobart from appearing.

- Faked the hard-coded "spawn Hobart" global variable which IWD sets on start.

- sped up the go-see-Wylfdene cutscene, so the camera keeps up with the player

- made sure Angaar ends up in the right place

- replaced "2haxe" with "i#axe", since items beginning with a number are hard-coded to be replaced with gold.

- fixed typos that stopped the "close Luremaster tower staircases" fix from working.

- Luremaster Keep temple of Helm added to the list of areas where an area transition needs to be disabled.

- added a fix for the area transition in AR9701 (cloned from the AR9703 transition and pasted into the v5-residual component. Yes, this is structurally inelegant; so sue me).

- the auto-generated variables used in the .ini file converter were longer than 32 characters in a couple of cases (leading, notably, to the continuously spawning jellies in AR9707).

- While IWD Hidden() creatures can initiate dialog, BG2 Deactivate()d creatures can't. We work around this for the Magic Mouth.

- Some old code was trying to "fix" a few minimaps which now work fine, and was just breaking them (this was causing crashes in AR8004, AR8005, AR9601, AR9711 and AR9712).

- Death variables are no longer illegally set to >32 characters

- druids can now revert to natural form (the "natural form" shapeshift had been omitted from the list in the "Characters" component)

- most (not quite all) exits are now NPC-impassible (the other way around is breaking far too much)

- moved Cam's item description fix to be run as part of Easy install, since it edits dialog.tlk

- shifted the animation converter to use Infinity Animations technology

- ice golems in Icasaracht's Temple now go hostile if party attempt to pass them

- ice golems now have correct foot circle.

- worked around the awkward foot-circle size for olive slimes (slimes no longer overlap; slimes that can't fit through doors get replaced with zombies)

- fixed a slight glitch in the conversion of opcode 67 (inter alia, this was stopping the Icas. gem from summoning vodyanoi)

- rewritten Icas. combat and cutscene scripts to avoid various glitches

- slight improvement to script replacements: we now (try to) identify MoveToObject([PC]) commands that are supposed to work when the player isn't in sight

- the manually-changed version of D4INFMOV predated the general mapping of MoveToObject([PC][0.0.10000.10000]) to MoveToObject(Player1)

- the transition from the Sea of Moving Ice back to Kuldahar now works more smoothly

- sorted out some glitches with Bandoth's use of spells in combat

- small tweaks to the range of the Zombie Lord Aura effect

- tweaked the gui and ToBEx settings for mutual compatibility

- disabled the ToBEx Arena mode by default

- disabled the tutorial (which crashes the game). [The tutorial button cannot be disabled, but it can be made invisible, and if pressed anyway, it just explains that the tutorial is unavailable.)

- worked around the fact that in multiplayer games, the savegame does not seem to store information on deactivated creatures

- tweaked the start-of-game screen to warn players to play in single-player mode where possible

- players no longer gain Slayer Change in expansion-only games

- fixed a vanilla bug whereby a snow troll in AR7002 gets no script (this was invisible in IWD because he starts hidden)

- fixed a little glitch in Cam's version of the AR9603 search map.

- tidied up the Easy installer process a bit.

- installer hopefully now handles a directory with spaces in as the destination folder for the conversion.